Sugar Rush Unlimited
by KittyZozo3366
Summary: A new version of Sugar Rush has been plugged in right next to the old one. Both worlds collide, but when phantom of the arcade rises up again, it will take new, old, and a few other characters at Litwak's to save thier home turf.
1. Plug In and Move In

"Okay, people, the arcade's closed!" Yuni from the DDR game shouted. That was the signal from her that Mr. Litwak had closed the arcade, and the others were free to roam about and do as they pleased. Most headed to Tappers, but for the game of Sugar Rush, it was time for the Random Roster Race. Little did they know they weren't the only one's having one tonight. Mr Litwak had just installed the new Sugar Rush Unlimited in the evening, meaning it hadn't been played yet. That also meant no racers had been chosen.

_Meanwhile, inside the Sugar Rush Unlimited console_, the racers were getting ready at the starting line. There was Malty Milshak, Nougan De Carmillo, Sue Tauzo, Peter Burter-Cupp, the Twins in thier Double Mint Racer, Cheri J. Lee, Monty Ray Jack, Babel Gumi, Muffintop, Kissibell Hershwitz, Almonda Joyboar, Britt McTwizz, Orbetta Rainbeau, and Tartley Azzureberry. But, the main racer of this race-track resided in the popcorn grandstand marked, "PV." Princess Vanellope came up in her racing uniform and announced, "My royal subjects, it is with great pleasure that I announce the first random roster race. Now that all of the racers are prepared, it can now officially begin!" The princess was brave in jumping from the grandstand into her cart, but the game soon said, _"Three..."_

The racers revved up their engines...

_"Two..."_

Two rival racers, Cheri and Babel, gave a sly glance to each other.

_"One..." _

Princess Vanellope smiled as she gripped her hands on the wheel. She couldn't wait to race; it was in her code!

"_GO!"_ Every racer sped off in hopes of getting on the roster. It wasn't too hard; there were 15 racers and nine spots, but all the racers knew that the middle square was going to be reserved for the princess. And it was only their first time! Vanellope sped ahead of all the racers, being the first to get to GumballPass. It was filled with dangers, and Almonda was the first to experience it. Her cart drove into the pass, but her nut car was immediately smashed by a gumball. Nougan and Sue soon sped up, with Cheri and Babel tailing them. Monty, in his cheesecake-kart, was far behind the others.

Sue was the first racer to get a power-up; a syrup slick, to be exact. She soon hit it, leaving a puddle of slimy syrup to make the other racers slow down. Most of them hastily avoided it, but Malty slid right into it. Her tires completely stopped, and when she tried to start it up again, the engine gave up on her. Many racers sped past her, leaving her cart in the dust. The Cakeway portion was up next, and Cheri had a sly idea. Using her exhaust, she lit up the cherries that lined the uphill slope of the cake. Cheri sped past Sue, and Sue's cart got blasted by the cherry bombs. She wasn't the only one. Two others, Nougan and Peter both had their karts stop after the explosion.

Babel sped past them, the Peppermint Twins not too far behind. As she headed up Cakeway, she got the idea to finally use her power-up. Her engine splurted out nasty sticky cotton candy fumes. The twins didn't get hurt, but it gave Babel the advantage of speeding up ahead of them. The cotton candy racer soon caught up to her rival, Cheri, on the Ice Cream Slopes. Both girls were neck-and-neck on the Rainbow Road, and then, the advantage came for Cheri. Both girls got power-ups, but the cherry racer had a Sugar Rush. She sped ahead, and headed out of the cavern, getting in the first spot on the roster.

Babel growled as she pulled up to the finish line, but was still happy she was in the second spot. Third place was gotten by the twins, fourth by Muffintop, and the middle reserved always by Princess Vanellope. The four remaining spots were filled by Kissibel, Britt, Orbetta, and Tartley. Vanellope announced, "And that concludes tonight's roster race. Everyone's allowed to roam and Sour Bill has informed me that a little village is being set up by Rock Candy Mountain. You're all welcome to choose your houses and design them." The princess got down from her podium and went off to her castle, Sour Bill following behind. Monty's cart came up to the finish line, but he was soon to notice that the races were over. He jumped out and ran over to Cheri. "What? The races are over? How did I not get in?"

"Easy," Cheri laughed, "you obeyed the speed limit. The point of racing is to be free."

"The only rule is that there are no rules," Babel chimed in. Cheri grabbed Babel's hand and said, "Come on, I want to see the houses that are being set up." The other racers heard her and murmured in agreement. She led the other racers to the village, and they found undecorated cupcakes, but only ten. They all groaned, but Almonda, stepping up on a jawbreaker, said, "Hey, at least we have houses. I bet those guys in the original console don't even have houses." There were murmurs of agreement, then Cheri stood up next to Almonda. "I have an idea. The winners from tonight's roster race can have first pick at their houses. The others can wait until tomorrow." They all nodded; her idea sounded good. Muffintop then raised her hand.

"Not to put a damper on anyone, but I want my house to be a muffin."

"I'm sure that wouldn't be too hard for the royal bakery to make. Anyone else have any comments?" Babel Gumi then raised her hand.

"I don't really want a house, even though I 'won' it. Do I have any takers?"

"Oh! Me!" Almonda exclaimed, pointing to herself. Babel nodded and Almonda squealed, getting off the jawbreaker. Cheri followed suit, and the group of racers disbanded, deciding to start decorating thier houses. Cheri came over to Babel and stated, "You know, it's really generous of you to give someone your house like that..."

"Y-Yeah..." Babel replied, looking at the rock candy mountain, not too far away. "'Generous.' Look, I'm going to do some exploring. I'll see you when the arcade opens, alright?" The cotton candy racer went on her way, and the cherry racer waved good-bye. Babel gripped onto jagged pieces of rock candy, and started her acenscion. She didn't really take as much notice of the cupcake houses as she did the rock candy mountain, which she noticed had a cave. It didn't take longer than five minutes for her to reach the cave, but it was worth the climb. She had a great view of most of Sugar Rush, and knew this was the perfect spot to get away from the other racers.

In the few hours the game had been plugged in, she hadn't really liked hanging with the others. Whether it was in her code or an error in programming, she didn't know. All she did know was that thier petty "friendship" made her feel sick to her stomach. All she cared about was racing, and winning. She also was curious about cheat codes, as in, whatever she could do to win. Maybe she'd find a hidden level, or something that could make her car teleport in front of all the others! Yeah, that'd be sweet! But, for now, she'd have to settle down in her new home.

Not far above, she noticed the cotton candy clouds were just hitting the peak of the mountain. Climbing further up, she pulled some of the clouds down from the sky, and shoved it in the cave to make a cushy bed. Now, all she needed was a few other decor items before she installed the traps. She climbed back down, and explored for some items. She came upon graham crackers, pieces of dark chocolate, and a marshmallow. She fashioned the graham crackers into a sleigh and using some Twizzlers, she pulled the thing back to her home. It was hard pulling the so-called s'more sled back home, but it was even harder to bring the materials up to the cave.

She then put the dark chocolate bars to make a three-selved bookcase. She took the graham crackers and made a desk, using the marshmallow as a seat. She sat on the cotton candy bed, looking at her work. She thought, This is perfect.

Fix-It Felix and Wreck-It Ralph headed through Game Central Station to Tapper's. Since the incident with Ralph's game-jumping, the two had become closer. Though they still had thier hero-villain dynamic when the arcade was open, they were like brothers after-hours. As they went by, Ralph noticed something. "Hey, Felix." The bad-guy got the fix-it man's attention by tapping him with one of his hands. Felix turned and asked, "What is it, Ralph?" He pointed to the terminal that read overhead, Sugar Rush.

"Isn't the Sugar Rush train on the other side of the arcade?" The sign then moved to reveal the word Unlimited stuck on at the end. Ralph gave a glare to the sign; he hated signs that never showed the full title. Felix, noticing the full title, exclaimed, "Oh, nice! They got a new game! Maybe Vanellope would like to meet the racers from this one." Ralph shrugged.

"I dunno. She usually just hangs out with me. The racers are nicer to her now, but...maybe she'd like to meet them."

"It's worth a shot." Ralph nodded, and the two headed off to the original Sugar Rush, hoping Vanellope and her friends would be eager to meet the new racers.


	2. With the Old and New

Taffyta was the first to get a glimpse at the game of Sugar Rush Unlimited. Her and her fellow racers had arrived at the game by train, which was different for them because thier orignal game just linked up by a walkway. She got off the train and signaled to the passengers to come off. Adorabeezle, Jubileena, Minty, Swizzle, Rancis, Gloyd, Candlehead, Snowanna, and Crumbelina all hopped off after they saw the signal. They all looked at the game in awe. Candlehead, easily impressed, gasped, "Wow! The high-def makes this place look even more amazing!" Minty then pointed to a vacant spot far over.

"Where's the kart factory?" Jubellina shrugged.

"Maybe the princess knows." Taffyta, acting as the leader of the group, told the rest, "Let's go see if the princess is down at the track." They all nodded and followed Taffyta. She figured this game wouldn't be much different from the original, so she easily loctated the track from memory. The ten racers then looked to find not even the candy citizens were in the grandstands. She then noticed someone she knew would be of help; Sour Bill, the one from this version of the game, sweeping up the track. Taffyta waved at him to get his attention. She came over, but Sour Bill, not one to like a new face, immidiately asked, "What do you want?"

"Hi," the lollipop racer greeted anyway. "We're from the Sugar Rush game that's plugged in not too far from this one. Anyway, we came to welcome ourselves to the new racers, and just wondered where they were at."

"Who sent you?"

"Oh, a friend of our princess. He told us it might be nice to introduce ourselves to the new guys, but...Vanellope couldn't make it. She wanted to hang out with the friend, and went off with him." Sour Bill, convinced she was indeed from the original Sugar Rush, said in his monotone voice, "Right this way." The children followed the small sour ball to a small village, where some cupcake houses were in place, and others were being set up. While the kids looked the place over, Sour Bill decided it would be best to tell the princess.

Taffyta and the others looked around for someone to chat with that wasn't decorating thier house at the moment. She eyed a racer that had a lollipop-styled helmet under her arm. The girl with the helmet noticed the lollipop racer, and Taffyta gave a little wave. The other girl came up to her and exclaimed, "Wow! You're the same style as us."

"Yep," Taffyta replied. "We're from the original game, and thought we should introduce ourselves. I'm Taffyta, by the way." She extended a hand and the other girl gladly shook it.

"My name's Cheri." Taffyta pointed to Cheri's helmet, then noticed her cherry-wrapper dress.

"I see you're a fan of lollipops."

"Yeah, but my specialty's cherries. In fact, that's my cart your redhead friend's eyeing." Cheri pointed to Jubellina, who was looking at the cherry pie racer in awe. Cheri yelled to her, "Hey! You like my kart?"

"You have cherries for wheels!" Jubi awed. "That's so cool!" Cheri laughed and headed off to talk to Sugar Rush's resident cherry racer, leaving Taffyta behind. Swizzle glanced around the houses until he found a girl who was casually leaning against her cart, which looked like a candy swirled with purple, pink and gold. If his name wasn't indication enough, he loved swirls. He came over to the girl and tapped her shoulder. "Hey, I'm Swizzle Malarkey. But my friends call me 'The Swizz.'"

"Nice to meet you, 'The Swizz,'" she giggled at the nickname. "I'm Sue Tauzo, mascot for the Star Swirl candy company back in Japan. The only reason I'm not decorating my house is because they're making more for the 'losers.' I have to wait around while the others race since I didn't get on the roster."

"At least you have a home," Swizzle snarked.

"Oh, you don't have one?" Sue frowned at the very idea of being homeless.

"Well, Sugar Rush is my home game, but no, I don't have a house. I've heard of a few homeless game characters in Game Central Station; ones that got unplugged."

"Poor things. How do you get unplugged?"

"Well, two ways: you either get the 'Out of Order' sign stamped on you because something went wrong, like a glitch or your screen malfunctioned. The other way is if you're unpopular." He shrugged. "That one just happens." He then muttered under his breath, _"should've happened to Turbo..."_ The Star Swirl racer heard his mutters and asked, "'Turbo'? Who's Turbo? You mean like the game character from _Turbo Time?_ He was very popular back in the day. What happened?"

"It started about 25 years ago..." As Swizzle told Sue the cautionary tale of the arcade's thirty-year menace, Adorabeezle looked for someone to talk to. She was the loner of the rest of them; more opt for exploring the tracks for surprises and such than hanging with the rest of them. She then noticed someone wearing a fleece like hers, only pink. They were in a kart that looked like a filled-up malt shake turned sideways. The glass was cut out where the seat should be, the wheels were made of scoops of ice cream, and two straws placed on the back were made to look like exhaust pipes. The blonde girl who was sitting in the kart eyed Adorabeezle, and asked, "You like what you see?"

"Yes," the popsicle racer nodded. "I have never seen a kart quite like it before."

"I take it you're from one of the older versions of my game?"

"The original, actually." Adorabeezle came up to the blonde, extending out her hand. "I'm Adorabeezle Winterpop, popsicle racer."

"Malty, milkshake racer." Malty shook the popsicle racer's hand. "Your name's a mouthful; got any nicknames or something?"

"Well...my friends call me Beezie sometimes..." Malty giggled at the name, and Adorabeezle blushed a little.

"Aw, come on! It's not that bad." They both giggled, Adorabeezle's blush fading away. Meanwhile, Crumbelina Di Carmello was looking for some racer who would appreciate her tastes in the finer sweets. She finally noticed a cart that was chocolatey, with white swirls. It had a boxier frame and was made for off-road than hers, but then she noticed a boy leaning up against it. _Eet must be becauze he ees a boy zhat his racer is built that way_, she thought; even her thoughts were in her French accent. She came up to the boy, and greeted, "_Allo_. I am Crumbellina De Carmello, and I am from zhe original Sugar Rush. I take it you are one of the other racers, no?"

He just nodded. She gave a confused, and somewhat concerned glance at him.

"Wait...can you eeven speek? AUGH!" She groaned and rolled her eyes. "Dang zhe programmers zhese days! Always dummying out every character! Eet sickens me!" She paused and turned from her dramatics back to him. "You can still understand me, right?" The boy nodded. She sighed, "Zhat ees good. Zome NPCs I have met...are so dummeed out, zhey can barely understand what I am saying. That, or eet ees the accent. Can...we find a method to speek with? I hate to ramble like this." The boy nodded, and took a nearby peppermint stick out of the ground. He started writing on the ground, and the imported chocolate racer came over to his side to see what he was writing.

_My name is Nougan De Carmello._

She gasped when she made out the name. "I am a De Carmello too! Well, I already introduced myself. But I can tell zhat we are going to become fast friends!" Nougan nodded, and playfully gave the fellow De Carmello a affectionate noogie. Rancis, not too far from the others, looked for someone who would be a peanut-butter cup racer like him. It didn't take him long to find a kart that was exactly like his own, from the wheels to the frame. Just as he was wondering who the lucky chap who got this fine kart was, he heard someone practically yell, "Hello!" to him.

He looked to see a redhead, wearing a t-shirt, vest and shorts, with a pork-pie hat that resembled his own. Rancis got off the ground where he was looking at the wheels and greeted, "Hello. I am Rancis Flutterbugger. And you would be...?"

"The name's Peter Burter-Crump!" Rancis would've let out a groan, but didn't want to seem rude. He knew that this hooligan was the owner of this copy-cart. Peter looked at the other boy's hat in awe. "Wow! You're hat looks almost the same as mine."

"You don't say..." Rancis said through bitter sarcasm.

"Omygosh! That means that we're both peanut butter racers! That's almost like...brothers or something..." _Or something was right,_ Rancis thought. He didn't like this other peanut-butter cup racer. He was loud, rude and obnoxious; nothing like himself (Well, except for that last one, but Rancis was a little too prideful to notice it.) Peter smiled back at Rancis, and asked, "So can we be PBBFFs?"

"Excuse me?"

"Peanut butter best friends forever! It only makes sense since I'm based off of you." Peter spit into his hand and extended it, hoping the other one would shake on it. Rancis looked at it in disgust, but then remembered how eager he had been to make new friends when his game first got plugged in. Out of pure nostalgia, the original racer spit into his own hand and stuck it to the sequel's. Cheri was enjoying talking to the fellow cherry racer, but looking around, she asked, "Hey, where's you're princess?"

"Oh, you mean the president," Jubelina corrected. "She went off with her friend, Ralph."

"Wait...President? What happened to the princess? She's not..." Cheri paused to think, but couldn't find a better word for the situation, "dead, is she?"

"Dead?! Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no!

It's just...well, we used to have a princess. For three years in fact. Then, one night, I can't really remember exactly when..." The redhead giggled nervously, and looked at the fellow cherry racer. Would she really tell this story to her? This story, that brought back horrible memories of how they treated thier princess? Well, she'd better; she knew it was best for the arcade. "A rouge racer called Turbo decided to take over. He used the persona of King Candy and manipulated us all into thinking he had been ruler. He took away our memories and made Princess Vanellope a glitch. He told us...to never let her race, and never hesitate to tell her that."

Cheri could see that Jubelina was on the brink of tears. The events, once they had regained thier memories, must've shocked them. Cheri came over and placed a hand on the original cherry racer's shoulder, and comforted, "Hey, it's over now. Someone stopped Turbo, and that's good. Now, you have your rightful ruler back, and if this Turbo fellow comes back...I'll make sure he knows a thing or two about the new racers!" The redhead looked up from the tears on her cheeks, and smiled.

"T-thanks...I'm sure that would mean a lot...to all of us..."

"Say, who did stop this Turbo fellow? I'd like to meet them and maybe thank them if I get the chance!"

"Oh, well, I already mentioned Wreck-It Ralph. Because he's the main one that helped save President Vanellope, she hangs out with him a lot. Then there's the happy couple, Fix-It Felix and Sergeant Calhoun. They helped Ralph out, and they're both the heroes of their games, _Fix-it Felix Jr. _and _Hero's Duty._ They all visit occasionally and are real nice."

Taffyta, who hadn't found someone to talk to, and was getting a wee bit jealous, got up on a hill above the little housing development. She gave a loud whistle to get everyone's attention, and told her fellow Sugar Rush racers, "Guys! The arcade's about to open! We need to head back!" The Sugar Rush racers said their good-byes to the Sugar Rush Unlimited ones, and hurried off to get back to their game. Cheri, acting as a leader, told one of the other racers, "Let's get to the racetrack. We have a job to do!" They all hurried off, and Babel, who heard from her cave, hurried down the mountain. She needed to install some slide or something; maybe after work...


	3. The Good, the Bad, and the Turbo

It was a fine day for both racing games at Litwak's arcade. Some played the new, while others preferred the old. But Sugar Rush wasn't the other old game the players preferred. One of the others, amongst Pac-man and Space Invaders, was the Fix-It Felix Jr. cabinet. After thirty years, and only one time the "Out of Order" sign stamped on it, it still worked like a dream. And because of the new bonus levels, it still proved popular. But some of the newest games were popular as well, one of them being the first-person shooter Hero's Duty. The game was simple; shoot Cy-bugs, make your way up a 99 story tower, get a medal. But of course, some of those who were not good with a blaster felt the game was a total rip-off for having so many levels.

After another successful day of business, Mr. Litwak closed up shop, and the video game characters were free to roam outside their cabinets. The two racing games of the arcade, Sugar Rush and Sugar Rush Unlimited, held their roster races each night. In the Sugar Rush Unlimited console, the racers who didn't get in last night got in, except for one...

"Last place again?!" Monty looked at the leaderboard, and put his head into his hands in despair. "I'll never get a house like this!" Cheri got out of her kart and said, "It's okay; I didn't get in either. Besides, I'm sure that you'll get a house regardless of whether you got in or not. We can spend sometime over at my place, okay?" She put her hand on his kart and he placed his hand on hers. He stammered out, "O-okay." Babel Gumi watched the whole event from afar while talking to another racer.

"Hey, are you even listening to me?!" the other racer, Orbetta, snapped at Babel. The bubble-gum racer looked at the sour ball racer in disgust.

"Can you believe those two?! Especially Monty. I can't believe he's falling for her."

"How can you tell?"

"Did you see the way he blushed when he put his hand on hers? The worst part is she doesn't even realize it."

"You like him, don't you?" Orbetta was no expert on love, but she saw the jealousy burning in Babel's eyes.

"I only like him because he's so naive. I could use him to get what I want because of his innocence."

"Well, if you did get him to hook up with you, what would ya use 'im for?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out, cornrows." Orbetta scoffed off the nickname and hopping into her jawbreaker cart, drove off. Babel turned back to see Cheri and Monty driving to the way to Game Central Station...and decided to follow them. She took off in her cotton-candy cone cart after them, following the two from afar. She only got out once she heard the train leave, then waited for it to come back. Once she got to Game Central Station, she looked at it in awe. It was amazing to see all these different games...coming together! She walked around to find the couple, but immidiately tripped over someone's foot.

"Geez!" Babel snapped at the other person. "Could you watch where you're goi-whoa..." She noticed the person she was talking to was nine feet tall, and was a mountain of a man with huge hands and feet. She stated the obvious, "You're...huge..." Ralph looked at the small figure that tripped over his feet, and stated, "Uh, yeah, and you're tiny."

"Comparatively speaking," she corrected. "Say, I'm looking for two Sugar Rush Unlimited racers. About the same height as me? One's in mostly gold, but the other's in mostly red and a brunette."

"I'm not your babysitter, kid," the wrecker scoffed, thinking that she was from the original. "I don't keep track of you cavities."

"Hey!" she exclaimed at Ralph's rudeness. "I'm just looking for my...oh, hey, there they are." Babel pointed when she saw Monty, who was standing right next to the Pac-Man terminal. Soon, Cheri came out, holding two cherries, obviously from the first level of the old game. The cherry racer handed one to the cheesecake racer and they made a run for it before the Surge Protector could notice. Ralph looked at the pair with a scowl. He always got stopped by the Surge Protector.

"Hey, you little cherry thieves!" he yelled at the kids. Cheri and Monty noticed the outburst was directed at them. They made a run for it, right into a crowd of people, hoping the wrecker wouldn't notice them. Babel looked up at him, and told him, "Give 'em a break. This is our second night here; we don't know any better. Besides, they'll respawn anyway, right?"

"Outside of the game? No way. If anything leaves the game, and doesn't make it back, it's gone for good." Realizing how new they were, he groaned, "Okay kid, you're gonna have to go to someone else to 'show you the ropes,' got it? Forget we met, okay?" Ralph rudely turned away from the girl, but she followed. She found herself following him to the Fix-It Felix Jr. game and asked, "Is this your game? What do you do there?" The wrecker turned back around and looked slightly irked to see the racer following him, but answered anyway.

"Yes, this is my game, and...I wreck stuff. It's in my name, Wreck-It Ralph. Look, you can't go with me in there, kid. Game-jumping is dangerous."

"Well, how could it be dangerous?" She looked confused. "Cheri and Monty looked okay when they left the Pac-Man game."

"Like I said, if you die outside your game, you don't regenerate. Plus, we don't need you kids going Turbo." Never hearing the phrase before, she asked, "'Going Turbo'? Is that something from your game?"

"No, it's not. Now listen, all right? I'm gonna explain this once. There was this guy, Turbo, from another game. His game was popular, but then another racing game came along and stole his thunder. He got his racing suit in a bunch and went into the other game to take it over. He ended up screwing up the game and getting both it and his game unplugged." She stayed silent for a minute, trying to take all the information in. When she finally spoke up, she stammered, "W-wow. I...would never do that. I don't even think I'd want to take over my own game..." She then thought to herself, _Though I still want to get back at Cheri..._

"Then learn to stay in your game. I already have one little ankle-biter following me around. I don't need more."

"Fine then." The cotton-candy racer started to walk away. "But that lovey-dovey couple was the one game-jumping, jerk." Ralph shot back, getting on the train, "Hey, I was just warning you!" She just continued to walk away, thinking that his pitiful excuse would not make up for his rudeness to her and her fellow racers before. Now, she had to find Cheri and Monty before they got themselves into real trouble. The couple in question was sitting on a bench, eating the cherries peacefully. As they sat and ate, they watched the characters that passed by them.

"Oh, look," the brunette giggled and pointed to another couple. Monty looked at the other couple passing by; they certainly looked...interesting. The male of the couple was short, at least a little taller than the racers from Sugar Rush. He was tan and wore a blue cap, covering his dirty blonde hair. He had on a blue collared shirt and blue jeans, as well as a tool belt that carried a shiny hammer in one of the loops. The female was quite different. She was much taller than the man, had short blonde hair and wore black armor. Cheri noticed when the two stopped; the woman looked like she had just remembered something.

"What is it, Tammy?" the man asked and looked up at her. The woman crouched down to be at eye-level with him and explained, "I just remembered; the guys wanted me to meet them for a root beer at Tapper's. I gotta move it before they get nervous about me, Felix." Cheri gasped at the name; she had heard it before. The one named Felix was given a good-bye kiss by the woman, and the blonde left to Tapper's. Monty asked, "Who are they?"

"I'm about to find out," the cherry racer replied, setting her half-eaten cherry down. "Stay right here, okay?" She came up to the small man and greeted, "Hello."

"Hello, neighbor." He gave a wave to the new face. "It's nice to meet you!"

"So, you must be Fix-It Felix Jr."

"Yep, from the game of the same name. And who might you be?"

"You know, I've heard about you. I'm Cheri." She extended a hand for him to shake and he gladly did.

"Really? Gosh; well, I did drop by your game a while back. It was quite a 'sweet' game." She giggled at his little pun there, and stated, "Actually, I'm from the new version of the game they've put across from the old one. We got plugged in just this week."

"Oh, really? I suppose that's why I haven't heard of you yet. It's quite a pleasure to meet you, missy."

"You too. I've heard about your game from some of the original racers. What's it like? I've never been there before."

"Oh, it's swell! Not as colorful as your place, but it's green, and it's a nice nieghborhood, what with all the other game characters that moved in. We've really spruced it up."

"Yeah, I heard about you." Cheri had heard some from Jubellina, but got the entire story from Sue. "I know about how you, Ralph, Calhoun and the other Vanellope saved the entire arcade! That Turbo sounded nasty. Did you know him before he...well, 'went Turbo'?"

"Oh, yes, I did know him...vaguely." He didn't want to admit to the girl that he actually tried to stop him, since it failed. "He was friends with my dad, the first Fix-It Felix. He was a good character, he just...couldn't handle the competition."

"Ugh, he seemed really envious from what I heard. I'm glad you've lived up to your good guy image." She then thought back to what she had seen before she greeted him. "What about Calhoun? How's the missus doing?"

"Oh, she's amazing...just thinking about her gives me the honey-glows." The racer confirmed his statement when she saw him visibly blushing. "She's a dynamite gal, and I get to see her in action sometimes when both our games are being played."

"It's sweet how you guys got together, can still see each other when you're in action. Does she ever see you through the first-person screen?" She knew it wasn't likely, but she didn't know much about the mechanics of Calhoun's game.

"Oh, even if she could, her game is far too intense to be watching me. Those bugs sure do give me the heebie-jeebies."

"Yeah, and I'm sure I wouldn't like it if they invaded the new Sugar Rush." She shuddered at the very idea, then remembered Monty was still waiting for her. "Oh! My friend's waiting for me back there. I gotta get back to him." She started to walk away and waved. "See you!" Felix waved back.

"Good-bye, Cheri. Good luck with the racing!" The cherry racer got back to her seat next to the cheesecake racer, and he asked, "Who was that?"

"Oh, well, let's just say that without him, we probably wouldn't even be plugged in..." She took her cherry back and started to eat it again when suddenly Babel showed up, shoving her way out of the crowd. The bubble gum racer grabbed up the free hand of the cherry racer and said, "You almost got in trouble for what you did!"

"What did I do?!" She tried to look innocent, but she knew game-jumping was bad, and that she had stolen. "Me and Mike were just hanging out. He wanted food!"

"Well..." Monty interrupted the two girls' argument. "I'd call it more of a date..."

"WHAT?!" The two females exclaimed. Babel dropped Cheri's hand, and turned to Monty. "You mean you're on a date with this clown?!"

"I was on a date with you?" Cheri looked innocent, and the cotton-candy racer believed her words. Both looked to Monty for a reply. He stammered, "I...well..." He wanted to say how much he felt for Cheri over the last few days, but didn't want to turn down Babel's affections either. He dropped his cherry and ran off. Cheri yelled, "Monty, wait!" but Babel held her fellow racer back. She said, "I think it would be best to give him some time to think..." The cherry racer nodded, and both walked back to Sugar Rush Unlimited. Babel thought, giving a small glare to the brunette, _Hopefully, he'll make the right choice..._


	4. The Princess and the President

Monty looked at the root beer glass with a sigh; it was empty. After the little feud, even though it wasn't much, he had come here to decide. Cheri was nice, sweet, charming, and an all around good racer. Babel, despite being isolated from all the others, was still a good racer. Plus, she seemed to have a nice crush on him. It was so hard to decide, and drowning his sorrows in root beer wouldn't help his case. Still, he told the bartender, "Tapper, refill my glass."

"You sure, kid?" Tapper, the owner and bartender, eyed him nervously. "You've already had three…."

"I'll tell you when I've had enough!" He slammed the mug down in fury, alerting the other patrons of his anger. He looked around and groaned, putting his head in his hands. "I can't believe it. Two days in, and already two girls are fighting for me. What's worse…" he sighed, looking at the refilled glass placed in front of him, "is that I always came in last at the roster races. I can't even win such a silly race as that one!"

"Ya think you have it bad, kid?" a new voice called to him. Monty heard it, and ignoring the glass of root beer, he turned to see who called out to him. His eyes fell on the shady back of the bar, where a figure stood at a lone table. He was short, probably even shorter than Monty himself. His skin was grey and his eyes were cat-like, meaning they had a sorta glow to them. He had a white and red helmet, which his racing jumpsuit. Once the stranger saw the racer had noticed him, he explained, "I was once the most popular racing game. Then, they plugged in a new one. Thought they could take away my competition. I got into the system, but their shoddy game caused me to glitch out. Then…I winded up here. Good thing I got out…alive…."

"How does that help me?" Monty asked, obiously seeing no point in his story. The figure smiled, and the cheesecake racer gave a cringe; his teeth were _yellow, _like his eyes.

"Like I said, I got into the system. I've seen the backrooms, what makes these games tick. And boy, I guarantee I can make your problems disappear. I'll meet you outside the game after today's races, 'kay?"

"How about while their happening?" The cheesecake racer gave a smirk of his own to the stranger. "Like I said, I'm not on the roster for today, so you can go wherever you need to."

"Sweet." The white racer shook the hand of the cheesecake racer. "What's your name, son?"

"I'm Monty, Monty Ray Jack. And you?"  
"I'm Turbo, the greatest racer you'll ever meet!" Though Monty didn't believe his claim, as he walked out of the door of Tapper's with his new friend, he thought the name sounded familiar...

Princess Vanellope, though she was only here for two days, had heard things about Game Central Station from her subjects. She decided it would be good to walk around and see the sights. It wasn't much as far as she could tell, as she walked around in her green dress. The strangest part was when she glanced around, people seemed to say "hi" and wave, as if they knew her. But…she was brand new…. Suddenly, she bumped into someone. She and the other girl got up, and she said, "Sorry! I didn't look where I was—say, you look familiar."

Indeed, the two did look alike. Both girls had black hair tied up, with various candies stuck in them. Both had hazel eyes with just a tint of green surrounding the pupil. But Princess Vanellope noticed the girl in front of her was wearing a tomboyish hoodie, a cute little buttercup skirt and mismatched tights complimented by black boots. The mirror image, once she saw herself, gasped, "No way…"

"Oh, wow," the one in the dress chuckled. "Do something with your hair and you're the spitting image of me!" The princess extended a gloved hand. "I'm Princess Vanellope Von Shweetz, ruler of the game Sugar Rush Unlimited. Charmed." The one in the hoodie slapped the other's hand to make an off-angled high-five.

"Yeah? Well, I'm President Vanellope Von Shweetz. Why are there two of me?"

"I'm from the new game that just got plugged in. Surely you've heard of me?"

"Oh, right..." She had actually heard of the new game's plug-in just yesterday from Ralph. She noticed how elegant her duplicate looked; she didn't like it, but she didn't want to say anything to offend herself.

"So..." The princess really wanted to talk to the original of herself, but didn't know where to start. There was an awkward silence for a minute, but then she thought of a question. "So...what's you're game like? Any...differences I should know about?"

"I dunno; you tell me. I guess I could go visit, but...what fun would that be?"

"It would be fun, considering you're me." The princess let out a chuckle. "Some others actually thought I was you, but I can't imagine you wearing something like this! Er, no offense."

"No offense taken! I don't wanna look like a poofy-pants pretty-priss anyway."

"Well! Maybe if you dressed that way, you'd have better manners!"

"Who needs manners? I'm a racer, and all I need is speed! The wind through my hair, my goggles, maybe even a missing tooth; manners has got nothin' on that."

"Right, right," the princess agreed that manners and racing didn't exactly add up, "but I have my own racing outfit." The _Unlimited _princess pulled out a picture of herself and handed it to the original Vanellope. It showed her in a white jumpsuit and helmet that were decorated with blue and orange stripes, standing next to the Royal Racer. "I don't want to get my dress dirty on the track." The president looked at the picture, then at her other self's outfit, confused.

"Why wear that stupid thing in the first place, then? I don't see the point; you don't have anyone to impress."

"I'm a princess! I _must _be set to impress at all times! Plus, these outfits the programmers made for me are to die for!"

"Yeah, I'd die too if I were wearing that." The orginal then got a sly idea. She hocked and spit onto the princesses boot. "Whoops, you're dirty now." The princess frowned, but then gave a smirk.

"It'll come out later. Say, what's that over there?" She pointed and while the president was turned around, she pulled out a candy from her hair, _hard. _She squealed, "_OW! _Hey, what was that for?" She quickly turned back around and yanked on the princess's tiara, throwing it to the ground. The _Unlimited _Vanellope placed it back on her head and glared. She explained, poking a finger at her other self's chest, "_You_ started this when _you _smudged my boo-!" She stopped when she noticed what her poke did; a ripple of blue pixels spread across them both. They both jumped back and gasped, but Princess Vanellope exclaimed, "But...how...my other self's a glitch?! Glitches can't leave thier games, and to my recollection, you're not _the_ glitch of Sugar Rush..." The original Vanellope slapped the other's hand away, and shouted, "Watch it! I'm not _a _glitch, but I_ can_ glitch."

"That's...strange, but intriguing. You sound like you have control over it; what can you do with it?"

"Well, I win races, sometimes. The player can use my glitch to, y'know, get ahead by a few feet. It's helpful to win races."

"I could use something like that." She grinned. "Anything to help the players."

"I don't think you could handle my game, princess," Vanellope scoffed.

"I'm from a sequel." The princess gave a confident smirk. "Ruling the original would be a walk in the park."

"If you think so, fine, try it, Miss Prissy. Once you find out how hard it is, though, don't come crying to me."

"Wait, you want us...to switch places?" The princess gave a cat-like grin at the very idea. "Fine...but that means you'll have to wear one of those dresses you 'wouldn't be caught dead in.' And the jumpsuit, since you'll be racing."

"Gumdrops..." Vanellope groaned. "F-fine, but I'll last longer."

"It's a deal, then." She held out her hand. "Come on, shake on it; it's not fair unless you shake." The president spit into her hand and shook the princess's. "Fine, deal." The _Unlimited _racer withdrew her hand quickly and took off her gloves. She explained, "We'll change clothes at eachother's games. You have more of this" she gestured to the other's signature hoodie and skirt, "outfit, right?"

"Well, duh," the counterpart smirked. The princess took off her tiara and handed both her gloves and tiara to the original. She stated, "The only physical difference between me and you; a crown. My Sour Bill would only allow you in the castle if you're wearing these..."

"O-okay..." She put the set of accessories on and groaned, "This feels wierd."

"You'll get used to it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an original game to get to!" She ran off to the Sugar Rush terminal, almost tripping she was so anxious. Vanellope looked at her and shrugged, and she went to the Sugar Rush Unlimited terminal. If only she had gotten there sooner. Monty had already sneaked Turbo inside, and the old 80's racer looked over the land with glee.

"Like it?" Monty asked, observing the racer's yellow grin.

"Like it? _Like it?!_" Turbo let out a cackle that was borderline insane. "Kid, from the moment I walked in here, this place was _**TURBO-TASTIC! **_C'mon Monty," He grabbed the cheesecake racer's hand, and pulled him down the bridge. "I wanna know all the sights around here. Show me at least every acsessible area around this place. Leave nothin' out, and-Oh, wait." The gray racer stopped and looked back to Monty. "I can't get spotted by anybody. They'd _kill _me if they knew I was still around."

"Why?" Monty was still new to the arcade; he had no idea about Turbo or the dangers of game-jumping. This was time for the 80's racer to do what he did best: lie.

"Because, no one wants unplugged game characters waltzing around like this. I was unplugged a while back because I..._lost my popularity..._" He growled out the words; Turbo _**LOVED**_ being the center of attention. He cleared his throat and continued. "I've heard stories about unplugged characters being taken into other games; sometimes they even take 'jobs' there. But...because of past crimes, other characters hate me. Would you be willing to give me a second chance and show me 'round?"

"Well, sure." Monty patted the old racer on the back. "Everyone deserves a second chance right?" In this arcade, not someone like Turbo. The cheesecake racer started to walk into the candy cane forest with his new "friend" when the original Vanellope, in tiara and gloves, got off the train. Once she got off, she ran right away to the castle. On the way, she noticed while there weren't many differences, one main difference was that her home-away-from-home, DietColaMountain, was replaced with a Rock Candy Mountain. She figured she'd check it out later, but first she had to explore the castle.

The castle was the same as it was in Sugar Rush; the iron gates and the pure sugar walkway let her straight to the pink castle. She passed the Oreo guards and went into the throneroom, where the Royal Racer served as this princess's ride. Not used to it, she looked it over and sighed, "Well, at least it's better than no kart at all..."

"Indeed, princess..." She'd know that monotone voice anywhere. She turned around to see a small little green ball with floating hands and feet. Sour Bill greeted, "Good morning your Magesty. What's with the new clothes and hair?"

"Well, uh..." She had to think of an alibi quick. Otherwise, he'd see right through her. "It's the latest fashion. Pity you didn't see me change into this."

"I've been around the castle, and I would've surely spotted you. Where did you get such a tacky outfit?" Ugh, she hated when people considered her outfit tacky. But she answered politely in order to keep this disguise up.

"The other Vanellope from the other Sugar Rush gave it to me. She seems to be more casual, but she still has an _adorable _fashion sense!"

"If you say so," Sour Bill scoffed. _Yep, he's still a little grump, _Vanellope thought. "Are you going to change into your racing outfit? The races will be starting up soon." Sure enough, he was right.

"Oh, thank you for reminding me, Sour Bill!" she exclaimed, trying to keep up the act of princess. She started to run out of the throne room and to her bedroom. "What would I ever do without you?"

"A lot, really…" The sour little assistant didn't follow her upstairs, and instead, headed to the racetrack. The president went to "her" bedroom and spotted the closet immediately. It wasn't until she walked in did he realize how many clothing items she had when she was princess. Most were dresses, but there were a few skirts and shirts here and there. Luckily, the white jumpsuit was easy to spot amongst shades of pink and light green. She hastily put it on and headed back to the throne room, hopping into the Royal Racer. She had to admit, being in this kart was a lot different than her Candy Kart back home. Luckily, the controls didn't seem any different, and she was able to make her way out of the castle and down to the raceway with ease.

For the first few races of the day, Vanellope acted as an NPC. She did this for most of the day, and for someone who liked being controlled by the other racers, it got boring. Unfortunately, she could hear through the screen that her sequel version in her original game wasn't faring any better. Players had heard of the glitch she had and played as her often, but the princess was unable to do so. The president hoped her counterpart would be okay…

The princess could not believe the day she was having. First, she had to wear this tacky tomboy-ish outfit. Second, the players tried to get her to glitch; she felt pretty bad that she couldn't do it. She thought of it as a great advantage to the players, and she loved to see the joy when players won. The players still won, sometimes; other times, they lost and got frustrated when they couldn't get her to glitch. The other racers of Sugar Rush were concerned about this, but Vanellope paid little heed to them trying to comfort their "president." She wanted to give up…

But she wouldn't give this silly little bet up after less than one day. After the arcade had closed, she decided it would be best to explore this new place if she'd be "ruling" over it. Besides, she didn't know for how long she'd have to keep this bet up. She decided to start her little tour of Sugar Rush by looking around DietColaMountain. She only knew of the layout of the older versions because she was a sequel, naturally.

Finding the hidden door that led to the unfinished level was not difficult, really. Two sugar-free lollipops crossed to make an archway. The princess placed her hand inside the arch just to make sure this was the doorway; sure enough, it went through. She stepped into the hollowed-out mountain, hoping to see the cola hot springs she had been dying to see. Unfortunately, the entire cavern was dark. Vanellope headed to the main chamber, only to find the spring was empty and sapped of soda. The Mentos that hung on the ceiling were chewed off, only leaving a thin layer to act as a cork. Though it was dark, the only light in the caverns was the unearthly glow of something that she knew was out of this game.

"C….Cy-bugs…." she gasped, able to make out their figures. She only knew of these horrid insects from the posters that were up around Game Central Station, warning others to watch out for them lurking in other games besides their own, _Hero's Duty_. Lucky for her, they seemed to be in some sort of hibernation. Taking advantage of that state, she headed straight out of DietColaMountain. She had to tell someone about this; she figured to tell the other Vanellope, but she needed somebody who could help her with this, someone who knew cy-bugs.

Of course, her mind recalled the name "Calhoun." It was on the posters that were up warning of the cy-bugs, and that any character that spots them outside of their games should contact her immediately. Princess Vanellope ran to the entryway of Sugar Rush and from there, _Hero's Duty_. Even if this wasn't her own game, she would keep it safe from this unstoppable threat.

"Man, that was a long tour," Turbo stated after Monty showed him around the place. It made the 80's racer wonder how big this sequel was compared to the original. The two were now in front of the castle. The cheesecake racer smiled.

"Well, it's not over yet. Weren't you gonna solve all my problems if I showed you _every _accessible area?" Monty swung one of the iron gates open and walked up to the castle; Turbo eagerly followed. The guards noticed them both, but seeing neither as a threat, they let them inside. Sour Bill, who had come back to the castle after the races, looked at them both. He knew of Monty, but didn't know of the old racer, and came up to him and asked, "Who are you?"

"None of yer business, Billy," the racer replied bitterly, kicking the sour ball away. While Monty showed him around the accessible parts of the castle, Sour Bill grew suspicious. How did this stranger know of his name? Why was Monty showing him around the castle? He could very well deal with the situation himself, but he knew he must tell the princess of this game-jumper immediately. With no time to lose, the little green candy hurried down to the track.

Meanwhile, Vanellope was bored out of her mind from this game. No one had chosen her all day, and she hated wearing this outfit. As soon as the arcade opened tomorrow morning, she'd give up this silly bet to her princess counterpart. Just as she was about to go back to the castle and change out of this stupid jumpsuit, she saw Sour Bill coming this way. The sour candy stopped at her feet and panted, "P-princess…..a g-game-jumper…is at….the castle…with Monty Ray Jack…"

"Who?" Vanellope looked confused. But two other racers exclaimed, "Monty?!" It was Cheri and Babel, who were both friends with the cheesecake racer. The president tugged on the little sour ball's hand and told him, "Sour Bill, we must all go to the castle immediately." She didn't want these other racers to feel left out of what was going on. Sour Bill nodded, and all fourteen racers followed him back to the castle.

Monty had just about finished the tour up by showing Turbo the throne room. He explained, "This is where Princess Vanellope goes when she's done racing. It's a pretty nice castle, don't you think?" He grabbed the gray racer's hand. "Well, that's all I can show you that's accessible anyway. Maybe we should head back to my hou-!"

The 80's racer slapped the Sugar Rush racer's hand away. "Hold it right there, son. You haven't shown me it all yet…." Turbo headed behind the throne and ducked behind the curtain. Monty, nervously following him, stammered, "Y-you really shouldn't do that! W-we could get cau—Whoa."

He did not know what to expect when he looked behind the curtain, but whatever he did, it wasn't this. It was a white bridge with thick blue wires on the walls leading to what looked like a game controller. The grey racer remembered this place well. He stated to Monty, "My friend, this is a code room. And this is how I'm gonna make all your problems disappear." As he walked up to the controller, he muttered to himself, "_And my own…_"

Sour Bill, Vanellope, and the racers went straight to the throneroom once they arrived at the castle. Vanellope asked, "Where are they?" but one of the racers, Sue Tauzo, pointed to the curtain behind the throne that was slightly open.

"The game-jumper must be back there!"

"And Monty too!" Cheri added. Everyone ran back, but Vanellope stopped them all, and said, "Hold on! We can't all go back there!" The president made her way back first, and Babel, Cheri, and Sue made their way to the back as well. All four of them gasped when they saw Monty with Turbo and the code vault open.

"Turbo?!" Vanellope yelped, memories still fresh from their encounter at her first race, not to mention his death.

"That's Turbo?!" Sue asked. The racers who were not currently in the room let out murmurs of worry and fear, having all heard the story of Turbo from Sue by now.

"Monty!" Cheri exclaimed. "What are you doing back here with this criminal!?" The cheesecake racer, confused by what was going on, looked back to the gray racer with a worried look. "Turbo, what are they talking about?" All the old character did was laugh.

"Heh, they're a lot smarter than you are, cake-for-brains." Turbo made a jump into the tangled mess of code. Vanellope, furious and fearful, pushed her way through the others, stopping at the end of the bridge; she never wanted to hurt or damage another game's code. She shouted to the rouge racer, "Wait! How did you survive?! I thought you died outside of your game!" Turbo turned back before he laid one finger on the other Vanellope's code.

"You don't get it, do you? I died while I was still part of the code, quite a big part, if you ask me. While that other Vanellope did reset Sugar Rush, I had respawned by then. And…still had some cy-bug code here and there. You know, cy-bugs quickly evolve, meaning….I'll get back to my final form, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!" The president remembered his final form well, how the massive cy-bug King Candy hybrid tossed Ralph around like he was nothing.

"Somebody do something!" she screamed, thinking Turbo would hurt her code if she did something herself. Monty, finally getting some clarity one this situation, pushed his way to the front. He told Vanellope, "Stand back, Princess; I got us into this mess…now I'm going to get us out." He leapt into the code vault and grabbed both of Turbo's hands and held them behind his back.

The old racer grunted and growled, furiously trying to get out of the Sugar Rush racer's grip. Then, he felt something, and Monty saw it too; a red glitch spreading up Turbo's body. When the glitch passed over him, the racer did not look like himself. His skin was not grey, now a regular peach color, with blush on his cheeks and round nose. The only grey was in his balding hair and eyebrows. His clothes were different as well. He now wore a red bowtie, a white turned-up collar, a purple jacket, candy corn-colored pants, and purple shoes with red gumballs. His helmet was replaced with a small crown on the top of his head. The only thing that detained from his now more human-like features were his red cy-bug claws.

"Well, I guess I'm evolving faster than I thought!" King Candy cackled, getting out of the boy's grip. The now stronger cybrid maneuvered over to Monty's code box and latched onto it. "Say, Monty, you know how I said I would make _all_ your problems disappear? Well….**_THIS IS HOW I DO IT!_**" The former king grunted as he started to break the box of code in half. Monty's body started to glitch furiously; all other racers watched in horror as the code box finally snapped in two. The box lost all its color and Monty disappeared.

"Sorry, Princess, I'd _love_ to do more damage to this game, and _I will_," King Candy let out a hiss, "but I have things to do, like get revenge on this entire arcade. _Arreviderchi!_" To everyone's surprise, the former king glitched out of the code vault and out of sight. Tears started to form in everyone's eyes, some of shock, some of pure sadness. Vanellope closed up the door of the code vault and all four racers walked back to the throne room, dejected. The racers who were not in the code room started asking questions like, "What happened back there?" and "Where's Monty?" The president decided, for the best, to answer the latter question.

"Citizens of Sugar Rush Unlimited, I'm afraid Monty Ray Jack is dead."


	5. Bugs and Kings Soldiers and Other Things

Princess Vanellope got on the Hero's Duty tram, but it was completely deserted. She hoped the game wouldn't be like that, and the sergeant would be there and able to help her. As soon as the tram rolled into the station, she hopped off. Her sweet and sugary home was definitely a contrast to the dark and edgy world of _Hero's Duty_. Once out of the station, she was met face-to-face with a gun barrel and gasped. Whoever was holding the gun to her face gasped as well.

"Sweet Sugar Rush cybrids, Vanellope!" The blonde put the gun back into the holster at her hip. "You could've gotten hurt! At least try to warn me next time." The sergeant knelt down to be at eye level to her. "What's wrong, kid? You never come here unless something's up." The princess decided to place the most important matter first; introducing herself.

"Sergeant Calhoun, I believe you have me confused with someone else. You see, another _Sugar Rush_ cabinet was plugged in next to the old one, and I made a bet with the other Vanellope to see if we could rule the other's game. I explored DietColaMountain, and…found it festering with cy-bugs. I don't know how they got there, but I know to contact you if I saw any. I could use of your services, if it's not too much to ask."

Calhoun was curious, but also doubtful. She saw with her own eyes that the cy-bugs that invaded Sugar Rush were disintegrated by that beacon. Then again, the beacon always caused the bugs to respawn here. But the beacon would always cause them to die before that….Despite the doubt that the girl's claims were true, she stood back up and explained, "I'll come over to the original game tomorrow night and inspect the place for anything strange. Programmers only know what a bunch of cy-bugs could do to that place…._again._"

"Thank you, Sergeant." The girl gave a salute to the soldier. "I know you won't let our games down!" The princess left to find the other Vanellope, but the sergeant stayed behind. She was still uncertain of the new character's claims; why didn't they already attack Sugar Rush? Despite this nagging doubt, she wondered if these cy-bugs had a queen…

In the tower of Hero's Duty, a flurry of red pixels appeared on the 99th floor, near the boss' lair. The flurry stopped to reveal the recently "leveled-up" version of King Candy in his bug-themed outfit. He sighed, "Phew! I can't believe I glitched this far! And it's just where I wanted, too!" The slithery cy-bug snuck around the 99th story, hoping there were no soldiers lurking about. He was glad to see there were none and made it into the boss' lair, the doors opening automatically.

The floor was covered with cy-bug eggs, and in the center was the Medal of Heroes. The former king was interested in neither, despite the medal's shininess catching his eye and the need for more cy-bugs back at his "hive." He made his way carefully past the cy-bug eggs to a secret room where he knew the boss appeared from. In that small, secret chamber was a cy-bug egg larger than the others. King Candy carefully picked it up in his claws, careful not to activate its hatching.

"This will be perfect," he whispered to himself, smiling as he saw the distinctly human face through the fluid inside. Focusing all his power, he glitched back to the makeshift hive he had formed in DietColaMountain. The cybrid tapped a claw to the egg, activating it to hatch. What came out was a small cybrid, much like himself, only he could make out that it had eaten armor and was much more cy-buggish. The former king greeted, "Hello, little guy. Ready to lead a cy-bug invasion?"

President Vanellope told all the Sugar Rush Unlimited racers how she and her counterpart switched places; she also told them all her past with Turbo, and how he took over _Sugar Rush_. To her surprise, most of them knew the story of Turbo, but not about how he became King Candy and made her a glitch; only Cheri seemed to be aware of that story.

She also promised them she would take care of the nasty cybrid personally once her and her friends found him. But, in the mean time, she told them to keep calm and carry on with things normally. The former glitch then went off to find the game's princess, but was surprised to find her in Game Central Station.

"Hey!" the president signaled the other Vanellope. Immediately, the princess spotted her and ran over.

"Vanellope, I have important news to tell you," was the others greeting.

"Oh, really? Well, I have something to tell you too…." Both were nervous until the former glitch told her counterpart, "You can go first."

"Oh, well…I don't know how to tell you this…but there are cy-bugs in part of Sugar Rush." The original burst out laughing.

"Oh, princess! That's hysterical! What's next, you're going to tell me you saw their qu-Oh." She gulped down, and soon realized that they didn't have a queen of the hive; they had a _king._ "I'm afraid I have something that builds on that. I know who put them there."

"Who is it? Tell me…"

"His name is King Candy. Actually, his name is Turbo; he used the King Candy design as a disguise. He's also what made me a glitch in the first place. I'm just lucky that Ralph came over to my game, but….he's also what brought the cy-bugs over in the first place. A cy-bug ate Turbo and turned him into a monster, even more than he was before. Ralph then made a beacon out of the Mentos stalagmites and DietCokeMountain, drawing all the cy-bugs in, even Turbo. But he respawned before I went across the finish line and reset the game! Now, he's gotten into the code of your game and deleted one of the racers entirely!"

"Yes, but now you don't have a beacon; the cy-bugs have started eating DietColaMountain and made it their hive. But I have spoken with Sergeant Calhoun of _Hero's Duty._ She will inspect the game tomorrow night, since it is getting close to opening time." The princess wanted to say more, but didn't know what to say. She just threw her arms around her counterpart. "Stay strong, president…"

"Keep calm and carry on, princess…" The original one didn't know how to react to the sequel version of herself's hug at first, but accepted it. Once it was over, she gave a confident smile. "Don't worry, we can take this menace down! Together!" They both nodded and ran to the games they actually ruled over, ready to get out of the ill-suited outfits.

The day at the arcade was hectic for three video games in particular. In _Sugar Rush,_ the races went on as usual, and Vanellope went back to her regular old glitching self, the players noted. But every once and a while, when the players chose her, she would glance at Diet Cola Mountain. She was worried not only that King Candy was coming back, but that without the beacon, they would not be able to stop him and his cy-bugs. She hoped, once the arcade closed and the Roster Race was over, that Calhoun would inspect _Sugar Rush._ If not, she would immediately report the situation to Ralph; she always knew he'd be there…

The game _Sugar Rush Unlimited _was not fairing any better. Princess Vanellope found out that the racer deleted was Monty Ray Jack, and was saddened by the fact that he never got up on the roster or got a chance to race. Cheri and Babel, caught in a love triangle with Monty, both mourned over the loss more than the other racers. Cheri was saddened that Monty never sorted out his feelings with her; Babel was saddened that she never got to manipulate him.

Last was _Hero's Duty_, which was still fairing to be popular despite its level of skill needed to truly win. Today was the lucky day one of the skilled players would come into Litwak's Arcade. He inserted the two dollars worth of quarters and made his way through all 99 levels, Sergeant Calhoun guiding him along the way. Finally, he made it to the boss level.

"Alright, you've made it this far," Calhoun explained to the AI system. "Because this room is under strict quarantine, I am not allowed to go any further. It's all up to you to save this planet and become a real hero." The doors automatically opened, the sergeant staying back from the cy-bugs coming out. The player was quick to make shots at all the cy-bugs, firing a bit wildly if need be. After all were killed and accounted for, he expected the cybrid boss to appear, but it didn't.

"Huh. Free shot," he chuckled, and the AI system went for the medal. The fireworks and fanfare played, and even though she was standing outside, Calhoun could tell something was off. She would hear the boss's roars, but there was nothing. She was curious to where the boss was, but she made the connections in her mind. The boss's disappearance was tied to the reappearance of cy-bugs in _Sugar Rush_. She also figured that's why they hadn't attacked yet; the boss had been keeping them in a state of dormancy, providing the small amount of food they needed to survive. Going back to the start with the AI robot, she knew that tonight, she would fulfill the promise she made to Princess Vanellope.

"Vlad, do you know why I am keeping you here?" The cybrid, now fully grown, looked at King Candy. The two cybrids hid inside DietColaMountain, though it was much harder for Vlad, the bigger of the two, to move around. The former king had taken this one to be a henchman to replace Sour Bill. But now, he decided to put him up to other plans.

"No," Vlad's voice came out a low growl. Immidiately, the huge cybrid put a claw to the smaller one's throat. "_Why __**do**__ you keep me here?! _The cy-bugs must feed…"

"S-Settle down!" the racer pushed the claw away. "We must keep the swarm strong for the first attack on Sugar Rush."

"When will this attack be?"

"Soon, I promise you! Just...when I move out to the other game, the attack will happen. That way, I can take some of the swarm with me, since I'll be bigger. Oh, and speaking of big….I want you to remember your place." The larger cybrid sighed and repeated what King Candy had told him in a monotone that would leave even Sour Bill impressed.

"My place is here, growing the hive in _Sugar Rush_ while you expand the swarm to all of Game Central Station. You are higher-ranked than me and meant to expand the swarm because you are no ordinary cybrid. You are a virus; in fact, the most powerful virus in the entire arcade."

"Ooh!" King Candy clapped his claws together. "You sound so inspired to do all my dirty work here! Now, come, Vlad; we have cy-bugs to take care of." The cybrid understood what he meant. He started to pick off some of the Mentos from the inside of the "cork" of the mountain and gave them to the sleeping cy-bugs. Despite doing what was asked, he knew he had a much greater purpose than this, buried deep within his code….


	6. Hush Now, Quiet Now

Vanellope didn't know where she was; it seemed like _Sugar Rush_, but something wasn't right. The colors of the sophisticated palette it usually had were grayed, and it was eerily silent, the chipper theme tune not even playing. She could make out she was in a clearing of some sort, not far from the racetrack. Not even remembering how she got here, she made her way down to the speedway, only to find it deserted as well.

"Taffyta?!" She cried out for someone, anyone. "Adorabeezle? Swizz?! Gloyd, this better not be one of your pranks!" There were no carts for her to drive, but she knew there would be one place to get answers: the castle. Vanellope made her way as fast as her little legs could carry her, and soon found shelter in the castle.

But she couldn't even begin to take in what she thought was a safe haven. The walls were as grayed as the scenery outside. The curtains and tapestry were torn, as if a monster had ravaged through here. She then spotted a small green dot near the throne; if anyone would tell her what was going on, it would be Sour Bill!

"Bill!" The sour ball immediately glanced up to see who shouted his name. The president ran over to him and exclaimed, "Thank goodness you're here! Everyone's gone and something's happened to the game!"

"Y-you're not here…." the sour ball stammered, starting to back away. "It c-can't be!"

"Hey, come on, Sour Bill…..wh-what happened?"

"G-Get away from me!" the green ball ran away, and Vanellope just looked at him in confusion. She then noticed the actual throne seat that was programmed in was here. Usually, she put her own cart there, because she had used it more often. She asked, expecting no answer, "Hey, where's my cart?"

"What do you mean, '_my_ kart'?" Oh no, that voice; it was the voice that she had not long forgotten, as it was just heard yesterday. She turned around to see the monstrous cybrid that had haunted her many times before; why would this time be any different? Then, she realized he _was back_.

"Turbo! How did….you get back to being a cy-bug so fast?!"

"Oh-ho, that doesn't matter," he laughed. "What does matter is _how you got out of the cold storage I put you in, __**glitch!**_" It didn't take the president long to try and make a move. She hopped into the driver's seat of the unfamiliar Royal Racer, but quickly took handle of the controls. She hit the gas and sped right through the cybrid's legs.

"Oh, no you _don't!_" the king hissed, rolling himself up like a pill bug to chase her. She maneuvered her way out of the castle and through the gate, but that's when the monster caught her cart. He held it down, sending her flying out of the seat from the momentum. She skinned her knees, but that didn't stop her from quickly getting back up. She ran for it, the cybrid cackling behind her as he chased her. She didn't know how long she had been running; as long as she heard the king's dissonant goofy laughter from behind, she'd keep at it.

But then she felt something; a blinding light that made the cybrid disappear. She embraced it, and didn't stop running towards it. Suddenly, she found herself falling, but her fall was suddenly broken by a stone pathway. She was in a garden, not like any of _Sugar Rush_ or any other game she knew. This place was extremely overcast, but it was better than the scene she was just in, so she didn't care. She followed the stone pathway straight foreword to open iron gates. Beyond the gates was a fountain in the center, and surrounding it, a few archways that looked like they once had doors.

"Hello!" a cheerful-sounding voice called out. Suddenly, she found that there was someone beside her. Vanellope couldn't tell if the thing was a he or a she, and frankly, she didn't want to insult it. The only thing she could make it out to be was a jester, clothed in mostly purple with a red gem on its chest. It stared at her with cat-like blue eyes, and exclaimed, "Wow! I haven't seen a visitor that looked like you in a while! And I see visitors from every game in existence. What's your name?"

"Um…" the racer made it out rather quickly that this jester was not to be feared, but trusted. "My name's Vanellope, Vanellope Von Shweetz."

"Nice to meet you! My name is NiGHTS, and all game characters come here when they dream."

"You kinda look familiar. You ever heard of a guy named Sonic?"

"Actually, Sonic and I are from the same company, SEGA. He's, of course, much more famous than I am."

"Wait, you said this is a place game characters come to dream, right? So that thing chasing me was just a nightmare?" She let out a relieved sigh. "Thank goodness! For the most part, I thought that would actually happen!"

"….But it will happen, won't it?" Vanellope's smile faded and she sighed again, this time in sadness.

"You're right; Turbo's still out there and taken over DietColaMountain. Soon, he could take over all of Sugar Rush. But…how do you know about that?"

"Oh! Well, because I'm a Nightmaren, I have the power to view your dreams. And don't worry! The Nightmaren thing's just a name; I didn't make you dream about him. I'm afraid that if this is happening in real life…then the dreams will happen more often. But really, what are you afraid of?"

"It's just that….all my friends saw him die once. They probably wouldn't believe me if I said that he was here again. My other self said that Calhoun would come here, but I'm not even sure if I should trust her already…"

_…..llope!_

The president's head perked up when she heard the voice. "Do you hear that?" She then noticed her body was starting to glitch up.

"I don't hear anything," the jester replied. "You must be waking up."

_…nellope!_

NiGHTS grabbed the glitching girl's hands and smiled. "Good luck with your problems in the real world. Maybe we can see each other again! Remember, face your fears and remember that your friends are always there for you!"

_Vanellope!_

The girl awoke to find herself in her candy-coated bedroom. Beside her was what she made out to be Calhoun, only the figure was about the same size as her. She wore a black vest, a brown and red striped shirt underneath, red shoulder pads, red pants, and black boots. The president could still tell this was _some_ form of the soldier she knew.

"Calhoun? Is that you?" she asked to be sure. The blonde gave a firm nod, and explained in a voice that sounded much higher, but still firm.

"That's right; I kept up to my promise with the other Vanellope. I'm going undercover because I noticed some of your citizens are properly paranoid of game-jumpers. The Surge Protector somehow was able to make me look like this as long as I'm in the premises of this game. I think whatever cybugs have come to this place, they brought the boss with them."

"Actually….I don't think Princess mentioned it, but….I saw King Candy. He messed with the code in the new one and actually deleted a character! You gotta…." A flicker of doubt came in the former glitch's eyes. "You do believe me, don't you?" The soldier responded back with a question.

"Vanellope, have you ever given me a reason not to believe you? If you say he's up and fighting again, I'll make sure that once we beat him again, he'll stay _down _and _dead_!" The sergeant gave a confident grin, and the president smiled as well, hopping out of bed.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"The best thing for you and your friends to do now is stay put. We'll wait until the cy-bugs are ready to attack; then, we strike."

"Why can't we just attack the hive right now? We know where they are."

"Yes, but their queen-or king, in this case- is still at large. He'll make sure there are still cy-bugs being born. The worst part is, he's still part of this game, so even if he dies, he'll respawn."

"But, when I reset the game, didn't that delete him from the source code?"

"Yes, but you're forgetting two things. One, that he still has the King Candy coding from this game; two, that he is a virus now, and viruses have their ways of spreading…." Calhoun took out a handheld gun and belt. She put the belt around her waist, and placed the gun inside a holster. She laughed, "Surge spot-checked me for weapons before he let me in. Little did he know I'm very handy when it comes to hiding these. I'm going to check for anything suspicious. Until something happens, I want you and the new Vanellope to draw out some plan of attack."

"Better safe then sorry, right, Calhoun?"

"Right. Stay safe, miss president." Vanellope saluted to the sergeant, and she did the same. The two ran off, one going to the track, the other heading to the sequel of Sugar Rush.

"Ugh!" King Candy exclaimed, preening himself while looking at a small compact mirror he had on hand. "Vlad, I tell you, when you are a cybrid and you grow, you must go through an awkward stage. Apparently, I've reached mine." The former king was right. Half of his grey Turbo skin had shown up on his face, and his teeth had turned yellow. He finally had his cy-bug wings, but his right arm was the only other cy-bug appendage that had grown back so far. This left him looking very awkward indeed.

"King Candy, don't take this the wrong way, but get over your dreadful appearance," Vlad told the "superior" cybrid in a snappy tone. "You were in the middle of teaching me how to run the hive when you leave?"

"Yes, yes," the king sighed and placed the mirror down. He flew from the upper levels of the small hive down to the bottom where the cola hot springs had once been. There were a few dozen cy-bugs in dormant state and he landed in the middle of them. "These cy-bugs here will be the ones to lead the attack. They need little food while in dormancy; just enough to survive…. But sometimes, I like to sing a lullaby to them…."

"_What?_" Vlad growled out the word, thinking the king was going to expect him to do that. But King Candy was doing it himself; in a soft, lisp-y voice he sang:

_Sleep my little cy-bugs_

_Let your dreams take wing_

_One day, when you're big and strong_

_You'll help me be king_

He came over to Vlad and whispered, "Tomorrow, we'll unleash the first attack, and you'll be king of _this _hive…" The king then started to crawl around the few levels he had made in the bottle-shaped mountain.

_ I've been exiled, persecuted_

_Left alone with no defense_

_When I think of what that brute did_

_I get a little tense_

_ But I dream a dream so pretty_

_And I don't feel so depressed_

_'Cause it soothes my inner cy-bug_

_And it helps me get some rest_

_ The sound of Ralph's last dying gasp_

_His little friend squealing in my grasp_

_Their citizens' mournful cries_

_That's my lullaby_

_ Now in the past I've tried forgetting_

_And my foes I could forgive_

_Trouble is, I know it's petty_

_But I hate to let them live_

"So you found yourself somebody

To chase Ralph right up a tree…" Vlad despised singing along, but he figured he might as well help his king out. King Candy gave a smirk.

_Oh the battle may be bloody,_

_But that kind of works for me_

_ The melody of insect growls_

_A counterpoint of painful howls_

_A symphony of death, oh my!_

_That's my lullaby_

_ King Candy's gone, but Turbo's still around_

_To love these "little lads"_

_'Til they all learn to be killers_

_With a lust for being bad!_

_ So sleep you little termites!_

_Uh, I mean precious little things!_

"One day when you're big and strong…"

_You'll help me be king!_

The king had reached the topmost level of the hive; he could almost scratch the surface of the Mentos cork. Suddenly, red glitches spread up and down his body. He chuckled as his other arm became a cybrid claw.

_The pounding of the drums of war_

His legs became that of a cy-bug's and he sprouted another pair of legs.

_The thrill of all our mighty roars_

His neck now extendable, he looked to the "cork" of the mountain and started clawing.

"The joy of vengeance; Testify!" Not only did Vlad continue the song for King Candy, he also rallied him on.

_I can hear them cheering, _"Turbo, what a guy!"

_Payback time is nearing-!_

The former king gasped as daylight hit his face; he had finally broken through the Mentos cap. He started clawing through more, in hopes to get out.

_ And then our flag will fly_

_Against a blood-red sky_

He managed to squeeze through the hole he'd made, and stood triumphantly on DietColaMountain.

_That's my lullaby!_

As his evil laughter filled the innocent world of Sugar Rush, the few racers still in the game after hours turned to look. It sent a chill down their spine to see that the king was still in power.


	7. The Search for Cy-bugs

Crumbelina, one of the few who saw the massive cybrid on the mountain, came running towards the castle, hoping that Vanellope would be there. She shouted, "Prezeedant Vanellope! Prezeedant Vanellope!" over and over, thinking that she would hear her, but instead, she ran straight into Calhoun's Sugar Rush form. They both fell down, but the sergeant got quickly back up; she held out a hand to help up Crumbelina.

"You okay, short-stack?" Calhoun asked. The chocolate-themed racer used the soldier's hand to pick herself back up. She then took notice of the stranger's attire; it was much darker themed, and she had a gun holster on her hip. Could she be a guard or someone of high authority? Whoever she was, Crumbelina was desperate for help. She explained to the blonde, "I saw Keeng Candy at Diet Cola Mounteen, onlee it was hees cy-bug form. I was lookeeng for ze prezeedant, but I just needed to tell somebodee!"

Calhoun was silent for a reflective minute, but she soon replied, "I'm sorry; your accent makes you very hard to understand." She then took the gun out of its holster. "But I did make out the words 'candy' and 'cy-bug'; a volatile combination, if you ask me. Don't worry, your president is with the other Vanellope right now and making up plans to make sure Sugar Rush will be safe and sound."

But she also had a plan of her own. The soldier still went down to the racetrack to find other racers and some candies panicking. She told them all that their ruler would take care of things, and they immediately calmed down. Meanwhile, the president was indeed trying her best to help by discussing things with the princess of _Sugar Rush Unlimited_. By the end of the night, they had come up with some impressive plans. After the arcade had closed the next day, they told the plans to each of their games citizens.

"First, Calhoun has mentioned we will wait until they attack."

"Now, that could be at any time, but I'm afraid to take chances, especially if my friends aren't here to help."

"So, the president and I have decided that the original Sugar Rush racers and my racers are to team up. Each team will be assigned to patrol an area in their kart."

"You can pick someone from the other game you enjoy spending time with; we weren't real nit-picky about that rule."

"Alert us if you spot anymore attacks. The other Vanellope and I have decided to stay at my castle for safety reasons."

"Does everybody understand?" both Vanellopes asked of their racers. All of them applauded and cheered. "Good; now let's get to work!"

"Vlad!" King Candy, in his medium-sized cybrid form, started heading for the exit of DietColaMountain. "I've decided to start moving. They know that I'm here now; the glitch has set up a patrol group and everything!"

"Shouldn't you have left before they started the patrol?" Vlad eyed him from above in suspicion.

"Well, I didn't know that Vanellope would _do_ something about it!" There was an increase in the anxiety of the former king's voice. He picked up a few cy-bug eggs in his hands. "Luckily, the races are going on right now, so there should be fewer racers to notice me. Oh, and because I am leaving…." His usually saccharine tone in his voice dropped as he told the fellow cybrid, "You will unleash the first wave tonight. Make sure they feed on as much scenery as possible."

"First wave tonight," Vlad repeated. "Got it." As the cybrid king started to leave, the larger cybrid's face cracked into a smile. He was in charge of the hive now; he could feed on whatever he wanted too, and soon, the other cy-bugs of the hive would too. He didn't wait long once Turbo had left to start taking the bugs out of their dormant state.

"Remind me again why I'm driving with you…." Rancis growled at the racer he had been paired up with. Peter smiled as he steered the Kit Kart around _Sugar Rush_.

"I thought it would be good for PBBFFs to be together, right?" The kart started to drive along an unpaved path of the candy cane forest. "This is going to be great, just the two of us, hanging out….we might even get to fight a cy-bug! Wouldn't that be awesome!?"

"Not unless they eat you."

"Oh…." Peter looked sad for a minute, but he quickly went back to his usual shipper mood. "But don't cy-bugs become what they eat? I could become one of them and infiltrate the hive. 'Oooh, I'm one of you…' and then once I get in, I can kick cy-bug butt! With….wha-puh!" He did a karate chop with his free hand, almost hitting Rancis. "And then a little….hi-yuh! Ka-tuh! Whoop-whoop-whoop-whoop-whoo-!"

"_That's it!_" Rancis yelled. "Stop the kart! I said stop my kart!" Once Peter didn't listen, he tried to grab the steering wheel out of his hand. This swerved them off the road and deeper into the forest. "You've been annoying me from the minute I've met you. Not even _Candlehead_ was _this_ annoying when we first started hanging out, and she's loonier than-!"

"Look out!" Peter screamed, and both boys saw they were about to fall into a pit. They both screamed as the Kit Kart rolled over the side and into the Nesquik sand below. Both of them fell out of the kart and into the sand, slowly sinking in. Rancis groaned, "Great. The cart will respawn, but not with us in it!"

"Oh, I'm too young to die outside my game!" Peter whined, struggling to pull himself out. This only made him sink deeper. The other peanut butter racer sighed, "Right; you're outside of your game. If you die, the president would kill me!" Rancis then looked to up above to see there were vines. "A-ha! Those vines are Laffy Taffy!" He threw a stick at some of them, waking the "vines" up. "Hey, get a load of this!" Rancis started to make a series of silly (and dare I say it, obnoxious) faces.

"What are you doing?" Peter gave a confused look. Rancis stopped making faces and sighed, "The taffy are the only way out. They only come down when they're amused by something…."

"Hmm…." The other peanut butter racer only had a small amount of time to think of a solution. He then moved his hands closer to Rancis' side. He sang, "Here comes the tickle monster…"

"Oh, no; I-I'm not—Hehehe…." he started to giggle when Peter dug into his side a little. "Hehehehe-st-stop…" Rancis couldn't let his pride get hurt like this; he started tickling Peter back. The two got into a tickle fight, which only made them sink faster. Pretty soon, they not only heard their own laughter, but a chorus of Laffy Taffies laughing. Peter saw one come right between them, and both stopping, saw it as a chance to get out. Both of them grabbed a hold on it and tugged; the vine shot up, back to the original level of the candy cane forest. Peter started swinging the vine, and the boys jumped, landing back on solid ground.

"You….saved me…" Rancis awed. Peter scoffed, "Think nothing of it; just PBBFFs helping PBBFFs." The original peanut butter racer playfully slid the other boy's pork-pie hat, laughing, "Maybe we'll get along better than I thought…"

Cheri and Jubileena drove around in the latter's Cherriot. The brunette honestly didn't mind sitting instead of driving. She'd much rather chat with Jubi than actually worry about the cy-bugs. Deep down, she was just as worried, especially over what had happened with Monty. She didn't know what Turbo was capable of, but if she saw that creep's face again, she'd give him a fight to the finish!

"How have things been since the attack?" the redhead was eager to talk, but didn't have much else on her mind.

"Horrible," Cheri sighed, leaning her head on the edge of the kart. "Monty was a small part, but now, everyone's worried that if they spot Turbo, he'll delete their code too. Babel and I have been arguing over who should've saved Monty…."

"Weren't you guys locked in a love triangle or something?"

"Yeah. Monty liked me, and Babel liked him. Frankly, I didn't think of him more than a friend because or game just started out. But then I got sucked into this…." Cheri turned to look at the original cherry-themed racer and stated, "I'm sure you didn't have this much drama in Sugar Rush…"

"Actually, a few years ba-!" Jubileena then spotted something in her rear-view mirror. It was almost the size of her kart and decorated in peppermint stripes; it was a cy-bug. Jubi screamed and Cheri joined in once she saw the medium-sized monster approaching them. The bug was gaining; the redhead slammed on the gas, and they sped around _Sugar Rush _as fast as they could go.

The cy-bug slinked along, stopping at nothing to capture the item it identified as "food." The two were at Cakeway, going speedily up the giant cake, about to reach the top tier. Cheri looked back and shouted, "It's still gaining!" Jubi gave her a worried look, but replied, "Then _abandon ship!_" Both racers jumped out of the pie cart, the cy-bug still going after it. Cheri rolled to safety, but the other cherry racer was not so lucky.

"H-Help!" Jubileena yelled, hanging onto the side of the massive cake. Below was many layers of cake that could catch her, but this layer was much too high a drop to risk it. The other racer quickly came to Jubi's side, and grabbed a hold on her slipping hands. She grunted, "I…I've got you!" trying to pull the redhead up. Her attempt proved successful after a few minutes of struggling.

"Do you think there are more?!" Cheri asked. Jubileena got back up and looked over the cake's edge to see most of Sugar Rush.

"Let's see….there's three over there….I see five over there….and I think I see a black dot right in the mid-!" The brunette pulled a hand over her friend's mouth and told her, "Let's…just report back to Vanellope." They started to walk the long way back to the castle when Jubi noticed something not far off.

"Hey! That peppermint one's eating my cart!" She let out a whine of anguish as she noticed it eating the tires. The cy-bug soon gained the wheels as feet and drove off. Cheri sighed, "We'll go to the kartery, and you can make a new one, but we've got to tell the Vanellopes the cy-bugs have started to attack!"

Taffyta's kart, Pink Lightning, was driven around the racetrack boredly. Babel looked through the scenery and sighed, "I don't understand why we got paired up."

"Yeah," the lollipop racer agreed, "and not even all of us got paired up. The re-colors, because they're 'tied to the track,' can't really help out much. But, they're going to be looking out around here as well." Babel waved at one of the re-colors, Citrusella, as the Pink Lightning whizzed by.

"So why did your Vanellope put us here again?"

"I'm not sure. I didn't really find anyone that I 'bonded' with in the other game. I tried to get along with that Cheri girl, but she-!" Babel shushed her by putting a finger in front of Taffyta's face.

"Don't. Mention. _Her._ Ugh, she's been a thorn in my side since we were coded. We were supposed to be rivals, but she's better socially, and that puts me at a disadvantage. Plus, I've been pining for Monty's affections since day two."

"Isn't Monty the one who got killed by King Candy?" Taffyta sent a chill up her spine with her own question. Ever since she had heard of the vile king's return she feared that she would hurt her president again, like she did before. It took a while, but Vanellope forgave them all; she knew they didn't have their memories. But her flashbacks went to the back of her mind when Babel answered the question.

"Yes, and Cheri and I have been putting the blame on each other ever since we found out. It's one of the joys of being rivals, I guess."

"But…you guys are just rivals on the racetrack, right?"

"Yeah, we were given the same stats so we would be even."

"Dumb programmers…." the blonde muttered under her breath. "But what I'm saying is that you shouldn't be rivals off the raceway. Vanellope and I always compete for top position, but off the raceway, we're the best of friends. Why do you even want this guy in the first place?"

"I just…thought if I could win him over, because the racers like him, that they all would like me." Babel scoffed. "Like that would ever happen. To be honest, I don't really want to be all 'friends' with them; I just like racing."

"Same here. Back when kingdom status was all about racing and winning, I was top dog and had lots of 'friends,' if you could call them that. Now, anything that is called a 'status' is based on friendship and fun times. The president likes to keep it fair."

"Well, she has too. Democracies are built on fairness."

"You know what?" Taffyta smiled. "I'm starting to see why we were partnered up." The bubblegum racer laughed, "Me too."

Sergeant Calhoun, still in her disguise of a Sugar Rush racer, made her way to DietColaMountain. She was the first alerted about the situation before anyone else; she also planned to stop it before anyone else. As she made her way closer, she realized she should've stopped it faster. She spotted stray cy-bugs skittering around the scenery, and was quick to take out her gun to shoot.

A small baby bug crawled up near her leg; she'd never seen one get this close before, but decided it was because it was a baby. Despite its somewhat cute looks, she was quick to kill it with one blast. It left a small smoking green trail; she gasped to find when the smoke cleared, an egg was left in the cy-bug's place. Somehow they were respawning….but why?! If she couldn't stop them individually, she'd have to stop them at the source.

She ran through the secret "door" to the inside of the mountain. Already, there was a hive of cy-bugs alive and filled with an undying hunger. The "cork" to the bottle had been broken earlier by King Candy, providing some light for the sergeant to see in the cave. But even without the light, she could easily spot the "boss" of this level. A much intimidating cybrid was lounging while hanging onto the wall of the cave, almost as if it had been expecting her.

"Who are you?" Vlad hissed. "I didn't think any of those kids would be brave enough to come in here…"

"Oh, I'm no kid." Even with her younger-sounding voice, Calhoun was still intimidating with a blaster. "I'm your _worst nightmare._"


	8. Memories

Calhoun silently admitted she had stared down cy-bugs before, but none as massive as Vlad. Vlad admitted to himself he had never seen a real soldier before, let alone one modified to look like a Sugar Rush racer. She knew she couldn't kill him; she needed bring him back to Hero's Duty, as he was an important part of the game. She would have to coax him back with small talk.

"So, aren't you far from home?"

"Actually, I hatched here. So technically, this _is_ my home." Calhoun let out a silent growl; that King Candy was a devious one, he was. At this point, the sergeant put the gun back in its holster.

"Look, I can't help but notice we're in a cy-bug hive here…"

"Well, thanks for that, Captain Obvious."

"That's _Sergeant _Obvious to you. Since this is a hive, you must be a part of it. What part exactly….do you play?" Vlad, despite having been questioning his purpose here as well, was quick to respond.  
"Well, Miss Obvious, I'm sort of the 'runner of the show' around here. The real 'leader'"—Calhoun noted the sarcasm in his voice—"left a few hours ago." The sergeant let out a silent "Darn it" and looked back up at the cybrid. She realized that neither he nor the cybrids around Sugar Rush were the problem, King Candy was. She turned away from him and started to walk away.

"I think your leader needs to have a talk….with my gun," she snarled, and soon, she was out of the mountain. Vlad stared at the entrance, and said to himself, "That girl is fierce, and fiery, like…._dynamite_." _Dynamite? _He questioned his own words. How'd he come up with that? But something clicked, buried deep beneath the by-bug memories and programming in his mind. He had seen that girl's face somewhere before, but as a woman. He remembered that it was before he was a cybrid; it was when he was human, if there ever was a time like that. He tried to remember where he had seen her before…sadly, he couldn't. The months of being killed as a boss and regenerating constantly had put a wear on his brain, leaving him with more questions about his past and why he was here in the first place.

Sergeant Calhoun was making her way towards the castle, to alert the Vanellopes of her findings. They probably knew, but she had to tell them to hand out the guns she had gotten past Surge's many inspections. She still had to get that boss back to her game…but how? And who exactly was this boss? She soon realized his face looked familiar, but as a human. Her military march to the castle came to a standstill and dread came across her face. She remembered it was from the few programmed memories she had; it was the face…of her fiancé.

She remembered her husband being eaten alive. She remembered firing at the cy-bug, but it made it out alive; she could still hear the winding and whirring of the bug as it assimilated. _Why are these memories so vivid? _The sergeant thought as she cursed her programmers. But getting this Brad cybrid back wasn't important; the safety of Sugar Rush was.

Calhoun raced to the castle, only to find the two rulers trying to calm down two cherry-themed racers. She handed guns to all four of them, and told them quickly, "Shoot 'em if you see 'em, but move quick. Somehow, these things are able to respawn. I'll be down to give some others to the racers on the track." With that said, the sergeant was out, leaving them all mildly confused. Jubileena looked at the gun in her hands and asked, "Who was that?"

"Just a….friend," the president answered. Her counterpart turned to her and asked, "So your 'friend' just happens to carry firearms into an E-rated game?"

"She's…very protective of me." President Vanellope smiled at the blaster in her hand. "I guess that's a good thing." Cheri didn't take long to respond to the weapon in her hands. The cherry-themed racer could make out a cy-bug through the stained glass windows of the palace. She looked to Jubi and explained, "We better get you a new cart. We'll clear a path to the place with these." The redhead nodded and the two headed out, leaving the rulers behind.

Calhoun fulfilled her promise of giving the racers down at the track guns; she just hoped they would know how to use them. After the long night, she decided it would be best to head back to her home game; she figured Vanellope and the others could handle themselves. As soon as she stepped through the gate, her appearance reverted back to her regular form instead of the _Sugar Rush _disguise. Once she was off the walkway and back to Game Central Station, two figures were there to greet her.

"Calhoun, we need to talk," Ralph greeted her with a serious tone. The sergeant saw the wrecker and her husband standing next to them. Confused, she asked, "What in blue blazes are you two doing here?" Before Ralph could even open his mouth, Felix continued the conversation in a more polite tone.

"Honey, Ralph heard from Vanellope the other night that you knew about Turbo coming back."

"Hold it," Calhoun interrupted her husband when she remembered her orders to the president. "she was probably with Princess drawing up a strategy. Though I'm not against Wreck-It's inclusion in this," she narrowed her eyes at the video game bad guy, "how does he know?"

"Vanellope stopped by _before _she went over to _Sugar Rush Unlimited_," Ralph explained, taking a step towards Calhoun. "It was smart of her to tell me, but why didn't _you _tell _us_?" Felix could feel the tension building between the two; it seemed no matter how close they got, there was always some bit of distance and aggression. He stood between them, only to warily agree with his "brother."

"Ralph is right, Tammy; you should've told us sooner. I mean, don't you want us to help? This situation will only get worse if _someone _doesn't stop Turbo." Calhoun let out a sigh to release some tension, then got down on one knee to speak to her husband at his level.

"Felix, the cy-bugs are from my source game; of course I understand the threat. But ham-hands here can't do anything. We don't have a beacon, because the cy-bugs ate it out." Her tone went from doting to her regular sergeant voice when she got back up, as if she were speaking to more…. "qualified" men.

"Alright, I might not know much about code, but I do know about viruses. King Turbug is definitely one, and if he's left his mark on the game's code, he's officially a part of it. His whole hive is probably virus-carriers as well; I saw them respawn when I started to kill them! Once they take a bite of the scenery, they're part of the game. He'll probably unleash this madness on the whole arcade….then it's Armageddon all over again."

"Wait…" The soldier could see the gears turning in her husband's mind. "What if we don't kill him in any game at all?"

"What are you talking about, Felix?" Ralph gave him an odd look. "That's impossible!"

"No, it's not!" The handyman pointed out to the station from the _Sugar Rush_ terminal. "There in Game Central Station; no one has been killed there, but it's completely off-grid for _any _video game character! That's why most good guys try to avoid bad guys"—Felix gave his "brother" a glance—"because they know they're vunerable. Tammy, I have an idea….but I'm going to need all of your help to pull this off!" They all nodded to each other. Calhoun decided it would be best to tell Vanellope, but before she even turned to head back, she felt a huge hand on her shoulder.

"Do you want me to tell her there's been a change in plans?" Ralph asked. The sergeant smiled, and replied, "I think it would mean a lot more to her, even if you're just coming to visit." She pushed his hand off of her shoulder and started to walk away. It didn't take her long to stop and remember something. "I haven't have any battle plans, so don't give Vanellope any details yet."

"I think she could think up her own," the wrecker chuckled. He headed to the racing game just for a little time with the little glitch…..and maybe to punch some cy-bugs.

The remnants of a chaotic night at _Sugar Rush_ made for a chaotic day at Litwak's Arcade. The racing game was now crawling with cy-bugs, and it was up to the racers to do ground control. Most players saw it as a "mod" or "hack" and found it "cool" and "neat" to see the racers killing bugs as they sped down the speedway; they gave little complaint. _Sugar Rush Unlimited _was still working, but danger was lurking.

King Candy watched the racers from afar. _Soon,_ this would be his again; _soon,_ his cy-bugs would expand to the whole arcade. What would he do then? Maybe he could expand through the circuitry…maybe to this "Internet" thing he heard so much about? Well, if it _did_ work out, he would be a very powerful virus indeed.


	9. Showdown at Game Central Station

Cheri J Lee had been stressed out at all the races today. She had experienced the attacking of the cy-bugs firsthand, and was worried on how _Sugar Rush_ was doing. She was so distracted that during the Roster Race, she rammed her kart right into a gumball. Since it was after-hours, the kart got no instant repair, and one of her friends, Almonda, decided to help out afterwards.

"So how did you wreck this thing?" Almonda asked as she slid a cherry wheel back on the axel.

"I dunno," Cheri replied, rubbing her neck. "I guess I was just distracted about everything that's been going on lately. I mean, if Turbo takes over, we'll probably be forced to be slaves to the racetrack or something!"

"Wow, and I thought _I_ got dramatic sometimes," the almond racer snarked. All Cheri did was stick out her tongue, and the smile on her friend's face dropped. "Okay, you're right; Turbo's a serious threat, and an army of cy-bugs is no laughing matter either. But, the princess and the other Vanellope and her friends all seem to have a handle on it. We should trust them to be able to defeat him. After all, they did it before, right?"

"I guess so…."

"Princess Vanellope told us Calhoun's got a plan that has all of our game going to Tapper's for safety." Almonda heard the wheel click into place. She got back up, and explained, "Look's like your kart's fixed. Glad I was here to help; you were so distracted, you didn't even touch it!"

"Huh?" Cheri blinked. "O-oh, yeah, um….thanks for your help, Almonda." The brunette gave a wave as the Almond Joy racer drove away. The cherry racer gave a heavy sigh as she got in her own, but it failed to start. She muttered, "Come on you stupid…" but then she caught something out of the corner of her eye. It was blue and flickering, almost like a glitch. She turned to see that it was indeed a glitch…..and Monty was right near it.

"Monty!" She blindly ran to give him a hug. "I was so worried that you de—!" Her body went right through him, and she looked at her own body, confused. "Huh?" She looked back to Monty, only to see the blue pixels she went through reform. "Monty, why are you all blue like that? You look like the Surge Protector…"

"I know…" the cheesecake racer looked down sheepishly. "It's because I'm a glitch, b-but not _bad,_ okay? I wouldn't hurt the one's I love." He gave a little smile to her. "The point is, somehow, I survived. You see, I think that once code is put in, it can never be _permanently _deleted."

"B-but, I saw your code get torn in two by Turbo…."

"Forget about that! Don't you know the links that code has, to all other parts of the system?" He scoffed, "Of course! You were in there! But what I'm saying is those still exist, and that...is what I am, right now." Cheri gave a nod that she understood.

"That's great! You're…..slightly alive!" she cheered. "But wait a second, do you know how to get back and reset yourself?"

"Yes, I do; I'll have to 'cross' the finish line. I figured I would sorta act as a 'glitch in the machine.'" He pointed to the Cherriot. "I'll place myself into this kart here, which would….maybe qualify as me crossing the finish line. It's a long shot, but it just might work!" Cheri let out a cheer of joy, but Monty quickly realized, "But we gotta do this quick! Because….Turbo's here, and he's growing into his strong cy-bug form."

"How do you know that?" The cherry racer tilted her head as she saw her friend getting nervous.

"I….kinda-sorta 'respawned' in the candy cane forest where he's lurking. I headed to the track, but because I'm really limited with the glitching, I ended up here." The brunette went back over to her kart.

"Then there's no time to lose! Wait….I think I have a way that this can benefit us both. First…." She hopped into the Cherriot. "Get in the kart or whatever you have to do." Monty nodded and glitched straight "into" the kart. The only indicator that he was in there was the eerie blue glow the exhaust started to give off. Cheri eyed it for a second and then gave a thumbs-up. "Second…..we need to lure this lurker out of here!" She then headed towards the exit to the game, wondering what Calhoun would think of her plan.

In Hero's Duty that day, Sergeant Calhoun was busy drawing up plans on how she should kill this "king of the cy-bugs" once and for all. She gave Kohut the job of guiding players through the game that day; some of the regulars to the arcade and the game found it a nice change of pace. By the end of the day, the sergeant had prepared for Surge Protector to do an emergency reset of both _Sugar Rush _and its new sequel. But she knew the characters wouldn't want to lose their memories again, so she decided they would take shelter at the games she deemed "safe": _Fix-it Felix Jr._, _Tapper's_ and _Burger Time_. Her men would stay out in Game Central Station while everyone else would be at their own game. She had to lure out King Turbug in some way; if only she knew how.

"Sergeant Calhoun! Sergeant Calhoun!" Suddenly, an answer came calling out to her. She was in Game Central, reporting her plans to Surge Protector; she turned around to see one of the Sugar Rush racers coming to her. The small brunette skidded to a stop, and stood there, idly shuffling her feet around. "I….I have something to tell you!"

"Hold it, short-stack," Calhoun put her hand in front of the racer's face. She then pointed to a random terminal with the same hand. "All SRU racers go effective immediately to the Tapper's game."

"We're going to be tampering with both games," Surge chimed in. "We want you to be in a safe place; we know how much memories are valuable to you." Cheri let out a groan to the superiors.

"That's not the point! I need to put myself in danger because…I know how to get rid of King Candy!" Just as Surge Protector was about to protest this, Sergeant Calhoun shushed him; she was interested to see what this confident little girl could come up with. The blonde told her, "Go on."

"As you know, one of the racers was 'killed' by King Candy." She put air-quotes around the word, only making Calhoun more interested. "But his code still exists, as detached code strings. He's become a glitch in the machine, or more specifically, my kart. If he crosses the finish line 'in a kart' and 'in a real race,' just like President Vanellope, he might reset the game!" Calhoun's eyes went wide, and so did Surge's, but the soldier was quick to ask, "How will that get rid of King Turbug? Resets may work on cy-bugs, but they don't work on pure viruses." The brunette gave a devilish grin.

"I'll tempt him out with what he knows best: racing."

The candy cane forest was right by the track, between GumballPass and Cakeway. Cheri drove her cart and screeched it to a halt once she came in between the two racing landmarks. She got out and went into the forest, calling, "King Candy, King Candy, where are you?" It didn't take her long to hear the shaking and crashing of trees coming her way. One turn around, and she found the face that she had dreaded to see for so long. She was actually glad he came when she called; his greeting to her came out as a snarl.

"You know, someone would call you brave for staying back….brave and _stupid._"

"Yes," she replied, a smirk coming across her face. "And I could say the same about you for staying back when our game is going to be given a reset." She then saw a look in his eyes that was something she never expected: fear.

"I-I was talking about my cy-bug invasion! B-But how….why-what-!"

"Calm your molasses, King Candy. Y'know, maybe _Turbo _would be able to keep his cool…" Suddenly, the cybrid's head glitched from Candy's panicked expression looking away from her to Turbo's, glaring directly down at her. Her eyes narrowed and she formed a grimace as he gave a yellow smile. "You a betting man, Turbo?"

"If you're talking about a race," he laughed, his Cheshire grin now stretching to its limits, "I'm all for it. But what're we bettin' on?" The brunette walked over to her kart, the cybrid following eagerly behind. She explained, "Well, I figured, if I win, you leave, and our game will go on the happy, peaceful world it was before. But…." Her expression dropped as she leaned her elbows on the edge of her pie kart. "If you win, you can rule and both Sugar Rush's and their citizens will suffer the miserable fate you place upon us."

"Perfect." If Turbo stretched his smile out anymore, his jaw would come unhinged. "But I have one little condition that I'd like to add to this race…" An sonic insect howl blasted at Cheri's ears; she covered them quickly. When she took her hands off her ears, she noticed the candy cane trees were covered with baby cy-bugs. "Not only will you be competing against me, but you'll also be competing with my precious little babies! And they're all mighty hungry…." He could see the horror in her eyes, but all of that washed away when she hopped into her kart.

"You've got a deal, Turbo." She held out her small hand, keeping one on the wheel. "Shake on it?" He let out a growl and his head glitched back to King Candy's as he shook with his massive red claw. Suddenly, a Player One and Two logos appeared above their heads. "Looks like the race has begun…"

"And I'm going to get _the head start!_" The cybrid rolled up into a ball and started speeding down the track. The cherry racer, left in the dust, called, "Hey, that's not fair!" She slammed on the accelerator and shifted gears; there was no time to lose! It didn't take her long to catch up, but she had made it to the middle tier of  
Cakeway. Still rolled up like a pill bug, King Candy ramped up to the top tier of the cake, but he knew he wouldn't make it. He got out of his ball form, used his wings to glide to the next part of the track, and used his back claws to skid to a stop. The brunette had caught up, and as soon as he made it to the other side, she went right between his legs.

"Looks like I caught up! Suck my lollipop, King!" she taunted, though she knew she'd regret it. She heard the re-curled up king gaining on her, but that's not all that she heard; there were chirps and chitters of active bugs. Despite the speed she gained on the Rainbow Road, she had to slow down whenever possible. The bugs had started chewing up the taffy track!

The cy-bug king was gaining; Cheri noticed in her rear-view mirror. Both of them were out of the cave and on the homestretch, and King Candy could now feel the heat of her exhaust. Now was the time to make his move; he uncurled and held down her back wheels with his claws. The cherry racer was pushed by inertia out of the kart, and fell just a few feet from the finish line. The cybrid pushed the Cherriot aside and slithered over to the girl and snatched her up. He cackled, "Well, dearie, I think it's time you say hello to your new king." But Cheri showed no fear in his iron grip.

"Uh, yeah, I also want you to say hello to my friend you killed." She grunted as she pulled a hand to point to the Cherriot. "He's right in that kart over there." All of a sudden, the kart started to move on its own. As it did, it crackled and radiated blue electricity; a glitch in the machine. It wasn't far from the finish line and crossed it all to King Candy's terror. The finish line lit up and sparkles appeared in the driver's seat. Monty Ray Jack appeared in the seat as a world-healing wave spread across _Sugar Rush Unlimited._ The cy-bugs who were now chewing on the scenery dissolved into non-existent code. The cybrid virus was not affected by this, the reset not bringing any anti-virus protection; but he was in shock, and let Cheri slip out of his grip and onto the track.

"What'd I miss?" the cheesecake racer asked as he got out of the kart. Cheri was happy she could finally hug him, and did so with glee….until she realized there was still a massive cybrid behind her.

"You…." Candy growled slowly, his energy a bit sapped from the resetting wave, "will not….._get out of here_…._**ALIVE!**_" Before his words were even finished, the two racers sprinted off to the terminal, hoping the train could outrun a full-grown cybrid.

All of Game Central Station as a hub was silent, save the Hero's Duty soldiers and Surge Protector waiting for some sort of signal. The signal came in the form of children screaming and them yelling, "He's here! He's here!" The soldiers turned their guns to the _Sugar Rush Unlimited_ terminal, being careful that the racers were out of their line of fire. Once the two came out of the terminal, Surge led them over to Tapper's. King Candy came crawling out of the terminal, much to Calhoun's pleasure.

"Ready to see all of your dreams crash in front of you?" the sergeant taunted the monster. She turned to where Surge Protector was, and shouted, "Surge_, NOW!_" The blue man zapped over to the Sugar Rush terminal, and all he had to do was place his hand on the copper cord. The cy-bug king watched in silent shock, for all the terminals (except the one he came out of) were protected by antivirus gates. The cord filled with pulsing blue electricity as the world reset. But he didn't have time to lament if Vlad had been killed; he had soldiers to deal with.

"If you're going to shoot me, you might as well do it now." Calhoun would be pleased to, but the grin on his face threw her off. What was he hiding? Still, the woman nodded as a signal; her men all fired at him, but he brushed off the blasts like they were nothing. He chuckled, "Now it's my move," and pounced towards the soldiers.

When Surge Protector reset the game, two things happened. The first thing that happened was to President Vanellope. She, the racers, and the NPCs were all confined to the apartment building of Niceland in _Fix-It Felix Jr._ All fifteen racers and a few small assorted fans had made themselves comfortable in the penthouse with the other Nicelanders. Felix had received a small walkie-talkie from his wife, and all of them were crowded around it, waiting for a signal that the plague of King Candy had finally been defeated.

"Man, I'm bored," Vanellope grumbled, Ralph right by her side. The wrecker gave her a raised eyebrow.

"Kid, it's only been 15 minutes since you and your friends got here."

"That's long to us," Rancis argued, though he didn't get up from where he was sitting.

"Yeah," the president agreed, "and another thing…" Before she could complain about the complete lack of food, she started to furiously glitch. The Niceland residents, though some had seen her do it before, took a step back and gasped. The _Sugar Rush_ racers, a little less concerned, were quick to ask why it had happened. Throughout the mutters and concerns of Vanellope's friends, one voice came out on top.

"Hey, are you okay?" Ralph picked up the tiny racer in his huge hands. He wasn't afraid when she started glitching like some others were. Though it was usually a strength for her, this worried him. She always felt safe in his hands, and the wrecker let out a sigh of relief when her glitching started to become less frequent. Once the glitch ceased, he put the president back down. "What was that, Vanellope? Are you hurt?"

"Nah," she replied, though she let out a tiny cough, "I'm fine. I think whatever that was…they just reset the game." She paused as scattered cheers filled the room. She then turned to Felix, who was right next to the walkie-talkie. "Didn't Calhoun say they'd do that once they killed King Candy?" All eyes turned back to the handyman. As Calhoun's husband, they knew all her tactics were relayed to him. But being put on the spot, Felix tried to remember what his wife had said.

"I think….that Tammy told me that we should reset your game 'once she lured that sneaky cybrid outta _Sugar Rush_.' Now, all we can do was wait." There were a few quiet groans from the children, for they all knew this would take a while. The second thing happened inside of _Sugar Rush_.

As soon as the game reset, the world was restored from its eaten state and the cy-bugs were vaporized….except for one. Whether it was him hatching inside the game at the time, or his massive size, Vlad was not affected physically by the reset. Instead, his memories were; in that moment, he was taken back to his programmed memories of the wedding and the dynamite gal he almost married. He also remembered his purpose…and realized he had been lied to by King Candy. When he first came to the game, he asked only one question:

_Why am I here?_

"Because you're game got unplugged. I'm taking you in. Now, you should _remember your purpose…_" Those words had been repeated many times by Turbo, and Vlad despised it. Well, now he knew his purpose, as the boss of _Hero's Duty_. But like the soldier he was before, he could hold a grudge, and right now, his only purpose was to _get rid of King Turbug_. He made his way over to the exit, making sure not to knock anything out of place. He would go over to the other Sugar Rush and get rid of the "cy-bug king," but he soon would find he would not have to travel that far.

The Hero's Duty soldiers were getting desperate. Back home, they had an unlimited supply of ammo; outside of the game, many of them were starting to run out. With his mix of a hard sugar-coated shell and clever glitchy dodging, King Turbug was one tough boss to beat.

"Incoming!" one of Calhoun's men shouted as the cybrid lunged to them again. Because he had been doing it consistently, he had been able to break up the troops, and was now picking them off one by one. Two had already been severely hurt by the cy-bug king, leaving only five and an impatient sergeant left. The soldier that called out the others was viciously swiped by the giant bug; though he was wearing armor, the force was enough to knock him out. When he turned, Turbug knocked out two others with his tail whips. He ran to Sergeant Calhoun, swatting another soldier out of his way. The bug screeched to a stop when the last soldier standing, Kohut, stood right in his path. Kohut wasn't afraid to point the unloaded gun at the king's head.

"I will protect my commanding officer with my life…" The soldier's words came out hoarse and harsh. Despite Kohut being intimidating, King Turbug didn't even flinch; the cybrid just rolled his eyes, and hissed, "Then you will _end it_ doing so…." The cy-bug king just smacked him away like all the others, and he and his weapon dropped like flies. Sergeant Calhoun would admit she was terrified right now, but tried her best not to show it, even when talking to the gruesome creature in front of her.

"Huh, you didn't kill my men, and seemed to be coming for me…." Despite her fear, she gave a slight smirk of cockiness. "If you're looking for a trophy from this 'battle,' you're going to actually tousle with it." The cybrid let out an evil cackle as he bent his head down to meet her gaze.

"Well this trophy will be _maimed and murdered_ when I'm done with her…." The sergeant prepared herself for whatever pain he was about to unleash. Just as he raised a claw to strike, something forced it from hurting the woman.

"_You __**will not **__lay a finger on that __**dynamite gal**__ if you know what's good for you._" Vlad's words dripped with venom, and his face filled with burning rage. The prideful king, trying to get out of the other cybrid's grasp, growled, "What are you gonna do about it? You're _lower_ than me if you remem-!" With just a twist of his claw, Vlad flipped King Turbug over his back and into the cold hard ground.

"_I'm only 'lower' in __**your**__ mind. I've remembered who I am, King Candy; I should be in Hero's Duty. But before I go back where I should be, I should put you where you should be….__**IN A GRAVE**__." _Alarm signals were going off in the king's head; he had to act fast. With what little strength he had against the now confident boss, he got out of the other's grip and back to his feet. Vlad growled and hurled a nearby bench at Candy's head; the king batted it away with a hand.

Calhoun was impressed that her former fiancé was saving her, but she needed to get her unconscious soldiers out of harm's way. Carefully moving around the rumble between the cybrids, she began to pile up her men near some random, but close terminal. Vlad decided to help her out by trying to corner King Candy. This was easier said than done; despite average fighting skills, the racer was an excellent dodger.

But finally, the boss of _Hero's Duty _was able to grab Turbo by the neck, and slammed him to the wall of a game terminal. The king's body glitched and writhed with pain as it was electrocuted by the console's plug. With the free hand, Vlad, now possessing the strength to do so, slashed into the other cybrid's chest. He knew the plug would fry him; he just wanted to make sure Turbo _stayed _dead this time.

Once Vlad made sure it was enough, he let the cybrid go from his grasp. The dead king had one final electric twitch spread through his lower body when he hit the ground. Sergeant Calhoun had finally rounded up all her soldiers, and grabbed a gun out of a fainted Markowski's hands, aiming it at the big dead bug.

"Knowing Markowski, even if he didn't out of ammo, he'd start panicking anyway," the woman told Vlad as he took a few steps back. She hit the former king's head, and both watched at the oddity that was Turbo's death. His body, from head to tail, turned to 64-bit, then blocky 16-bit, and finally to a flat 8-bit. He then disintegrated into red binary, leaving nothing behind except a napkin from Tapper's.

"_Tamora?_" Calhoun heard her first name, and only people with a close relationship to her called her that. She first thought it was Vlad, but he just gave a shrug. She then noticed it came from the walkie-talkie on her belt. She held it up and heard Felix's voice. "_Is everything alright? We've been waiting an hour! Is Turbo…gone?_" The blonde gave a smirk and quipped through the communicator, "Y'know, I realized today why the programmers never let me fight the boss. Turbo is now gone; we've finally won." The cheers of Nicelanders and the like echoed into Game Central Station.


	10. Epilogue

A party had started at Fix-it Felix Jr. as soon as the good news had been brought to the other games. The Sugar Rush characters, already there, started the party in high spirits. Calhoun arrived alone; she made sure the soldiers she had with her made it back to Hero's Duty safely and with their wounds cleaned. Her husband, after giving her a hug and kiss, asked it how she did it with all her soldiers down. She replied it was "an unexpected source."

Calhoun was the only one who knew that Brad, who now went by Vlad, was still alive and had helped her. Of course, she had to bring him back to Hero's Duty, as he was the boss. But she also had to kill him; being in the game, he would respawn when it was played again. The cybrid knew this too, and the sergeant turned on the beacon and watched solemnly as he flew mindlessly to it. She then took a minute to reflect on how this was like her back-story before she dragged her men back to their home.

Back at the party, President Vanellope was dancing her way through the night, until she was stopped by someone tapping on her shoulder. She turned around to see her reflection, only this "mirror image" was wearing a tiara, a green flapper dress, gloves and a candy necklace. Well, at least they had the same boots.

"Isn't this exciting?!" the princess squealed, looking in wonder at it all. "I've never really been to a party since we were plugged in."

"It's only been less then a week!" the original laughed. "But hey, I had a party as soon as we were plugged in."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but it was back when I was a princess. It was back at the castle, and a bunch of characters from other games showed up, even Sonic!" She then groaned as she recalled, "I remember wearing this _big, poof-y_ pink dress! Ugh, you should've seen it; you would've loved it."

"Oh, I know what dress you're talking about. Believe me, I _hate_ that thing."

The former glitch raised an eyebrow, and chuckled, "Seriously?"

"I mean, I like _all_ my dresses, but though that one's definitely the most grandeur, I cannot _move_ in that thing!" The president couldn't help but laugh as the princess pretended to gag. "And you _do not_ even want to _try _to sit in the Royal Racer with that thing on…"

"Wait!" The original grabbed the sequel's arm. "I just got a great idea. We should race against each other! The loser has to wear that dress on the selection screen for a day and race in it!" Surprisingly, both shook on it; little did the princess know her copy didn't race with her programmed kart…

Meanwhile, Monty Ray Jack felt very uncomfortable while sitting at the bar, Babel on his left, Cheri to his right. Babel sighed, leaning in a little closer to him, "Alright, we've all been curious about who you're going to choose since we both like you: me or her?"

"To be honest, _she's _the only one who cares," Cheri stated. "This is you're on decision, Monty, and we'll still care about you either way." The brunette then put her hands on one of Monty's; it didn't help with the pressure being placed on him at the moment. But the cheesecake racer just had to get his feelings out right then and there. Before he started, he looked to both girls.

"Cheri, Babel, I gotta say, I feel like this whole thing, with Turbo and cy-bugs and all that. I know he's been a threat before, but without me being put on the spot and winding up at Tapper's, none of this would've happened. So I guess….what I want now is no real relationship at all. Right now, I think it's important that I focus on my racing. I mean, that's what this game's about, right?" The boy left, both girls giving shocked and confused expressions. Babel looked to her rival.

"I'm still going to try to get him to like me." The cherry-themed racer just gave her a flat look.

"But…to him it'll mean nothing."

"It means nothing to me too. The only reason I want his affections is because I think a relationship with him would get me some respect in Game Central Station. Then, I could probably get what I want. He really is a lovable guy….if only he weren't so thick." Cheri blinked as her young brain processed the information.

"Babel, you're a lot older than you look," she finally stated. The rival cracked a smile, and chuckled, "I'll take that as a compliment." The two girls noticed someone had placed mugs of root beer in front of them. The cotton candy racer raised hers in a celebratory fashion and exclaimed, "To us being rivals on the racetrack, Cheri J. Lee."

"Same here, Babel Gumi," the cherry-themed racer agreed as she clinked her mug against the other. For the rest of the night, the party went on without a flaw, and it seemed the whole arcade was happy.

Morning came, and the characters all went back to their games. Calhoun went back to _Hero's Duty_ after another hug and kiss from Felix, but felt something. As she led the AI system through and watched soldiers shoot down monstrous cy-bugs, she felt something. In her stone-cold soldier coding, she felt a twinge of empathy for the bugs. Okay, maybe not them, but for their leader; she was actually relived that she didn't have to kill her fiancé, again, if the player made it that far.

Once the long day was over and done, and most of the soldiers had left, the sergeant made her way inside the tower and took a fortunately coded elevator to the top. The elevator was a cheat leftover from the computer version, and Calhoun knew it well. Once to the top, she made it into the boss' lair where the Medal of Heroes was. She saw hundreds of cy-bug eggs scattered across the floor, but she was only interested in one, and it wasn't there. She carefully made her way across the floor and to a secret room which contained Vlad's egg.

She held it in her hands for a second and touched the top, activating it to hatch. She had only seen fully-grown cybrids, never little babies like this one. He seemed so tiny; she couldn't help but smile. She figured she'd spend a little time with him, though he probably wouldn't remember it. The blonde greeted, "Hello, little guy. Ready to spend some time together, just you and me?'


End file.
